Harry Potter and the Child of Tourach
by Mishra
Summary: Sequel to Fortress of Woe: Five years after Voldemort’s fall a new threat rises. As ancient foes clash the Wizarding World crumbles in their wake and Harry finds himself once again caught in the middle of a world shaking conflict HG RHr
1. Chapter 1

**Harry Potter and the Child of Tourach**

**Summary: **Sequel to Fortress of WoeFive years after Voldemort's fall a new threat rises. As ancient foes clash the Wizarding World crumbles in their wake and Harry finds himself caught in the middle

**Notes:** rated for language, violence and graphic sex, you have been warned! Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I don't, nor will I ever, own Harry Potter, nor will I make any money with this story.

**Chapter 1: Awakening**

31.8.2002 Bering Sea 7:32 PM European Standard Time

A storm was raging over the Bering Sea, the sea separating Canada and Asia. The black sea was churning, steamed up by the howling wind. Ice floes topped the waves; little white spots contrasting brightly against the black water. Dawn wasn't even close, only the lighting bolts lightened the sky; tiny moments of brightness followed by absolute darkness. Claps of thunder accompanied the bolts, only seconds separating them. The temperature was icy and the sea completely deserted for everyone sane had retreated into the safety of the mainland.

That was about to change.

Slowly a vortex was forming within the raging sea. At first it was only a few inches in diameter but it grew quickly. Within a minute it grew to three feet and gained strength, eagerly swallowing all water it could get. Suddenly it stopped. A gigantic water column erupted from the vortex, spraying water and ice floes twenty feet into the air. After this the sea wasn't deserted anymore.

A lone figure was levitating over the churning water, precisely where the vortex had been mere moments ago. The figure was a skeleton, its pale bones covered by translucent ice. Judging by its broad shoulders and slim pelvis it once belonged to a tall man. Its head was topped with ice spikes, resembling pale, spiky hair. Its eye sockets were filled with two glittering, almond-shaped ice crystals, shining with malice and intelligence. The rest of his body was completely covered in ice instead of flesh and a tattered black cloak was his only clothing.

This creature's name was _Crosis_.

Slowly Crosis turned around, his face now facing east and something like a smile played on his ice-covered lips. He had found what he had been looking for and started to fly east, knowing that the others would join him soon.

- - - - -

31.8.2002 Argentina, the volcano Maipo 7:32 PM European Standard Time

Carlos was drenched in sweat as he walked on the narrow paths crossing the volcano on his way home. Even though the winter had only ended a short time ago, it was already warm and the stony parts were difficult to climb. The heavy backpack he was carrying didn't ease his journey at all, and he cursed silently under his breath in Spanish as he continued walking. He was a small man of about thirty, with chocolate-brown skin, black eyes, short, curly black hair and a boyish face. He had spent his day working on a coffee plantation and bought a few things on his way back. He still had about two miles to walk before he would reach his home and meet his wife and two small children.

It was already late and therefore he had decided to use some shortcuts, which lead further up the mountain, sparing him the journey around it. Normally he didn't use this way, due to the strange presence one could feel if you walked close to the top of the volcano. It felt as though something dangerous was watching you and waited for a good moment to strike. Of course no one had ever been attacked, but nevertheless most people avoided to top as much as possible. There was no reason to press one's luck after all.

Carlos wiped the sweat from his forehead and just wanted to continue his journey, as he heard a muffled voice speaking to him in a language he couldn't understand.

"Free, free at last!!! The time has come to continue the old battle. Time to get out of this hole and find Tourach. It won't be long now until the contest starts again."

Suddenly the ground started shaking and Carlos feel on all fours, being caught off-guard. The stone under his feet and hands was trembling and creaking and suddenly a five foot long crack appeared in it, directly next to him. It widened quickly and soon was two feet wide. Suddenly a hand appeared in the crevice and grabbed the edge of it, apparently someone was trying to pull him- or herself out of the hole! It was a very strange hand, made of what seemed to be vines. Carlos was stunned. He was completely petrified. Unmoving he watched the creature unfold itself from its stony prison.

It looked like a very tall and big man, made of vines and fire. The left half of his body consisted completely out of plants, forming a human body, while the other half was made of magma. Even the creature's face was divided, one half of it fiery red and the other moss-green. Only its eyes weren't red or green; they were jet-black and staring at Carlos intensely. After what appeared to be an eternity the creature's gaze unlocked itself from him and it flew away. Soon it was only a small dot in the sky and for a brief moment a name blazed through the young man's mind: _Anhur_

- - - - -

31.8.2002 Tanzania, Mount Kilimanjaro 7:32 PM European Standard Time

The Kilimanjaro was riddled with caves, but only one of them was invisible to mortals. Its entrance was only four feet wide, but led to a vast cavern, more then thirty feet in diameter. Stalagmites, stalactites and various colourful crystals lined the narrow path leading deeper in the mountain. Sometimes a ray of light would hit one of the crystals and get refracted, illuminating the cave with coloured beams. Drips of water were falling from the ceiling in regular intervals, the sound of them hitting the floor echoing throughout the grotto.

A straightaway path lead deeper into the mountain; the only source of illumination was a special sort of crystal, which was light-blue and glowing in the dark and whose radiance seemed to grow stronger the deeper one travelled into the peak. After about half a mile the path widened into a circular grotto, about ten feet in diameter and eight feet high. It was nearly completely filled by a big, translucent crystal, the shape of an obelisk, which was six feet high and three feet wide and deep. It was clearly a magical object due to two reasons: First of all it crackled with magical and energy and there was a woman embedded in it. She had nearly snow-white skin, platinum-blonde hair and was dressed in a white tunica, which hugged her lean form. The only not-white thing on her, were her blood-red lips. She had her knees pulled up to her torso in a foetal-position and seemed to slumber peacefully.

Suddenly the sound of a hammer striking a glass bell filled the cavern. Cracks appeared in the crystal and suddenly it exploded in a shower of translucent splinters. The woman gracefully floated down to the ground, her bare feet unhurt by the sharp crystal fragments. She opened her eyes, which were golden, and focused her gaze on the path leading out of the cave. She knew that the others had awoken as well and that it was time to continue their old fight. Her first step would be to find the judge. Slowly she floated out of the cave, before speeding up and disappearing in the sky.

After she had left a light wind arose, whispering a name: _Shai_.

- - - - -

31.8.2002 Great Britain, London 7:32 PM European Standard Time

"Home, sweet Home" thought Harry as he pushed open the door leading to his apartment. Closing the door behind him and slipping out of his shoes, he walked into the largest room of the flat, the living room, which connected all other parts of it. Once again the beauty of it awed him. It was a very modern building, built only five years ago, and was located in one of the upper-middleclass areas in London. It was an apartment building, ten storeys high and Harry owned the penthouse on top of it.

Most of the flat was either made of glass, light-coloured wood or aluminium and Harry completely loved its style. The living room housed a wooden table with four cantilever chairs and a cream-coloured couch. One corner of it had been separated by a counter, housing the fridge, the stove and pantry, plus some cabinets containing all kind of plates, glasses, pots and cutlery. One of the walls of the living room was a gigantic window, granting the inhabitants a spectacular view over London. A door on the left wall led to the bedroom, which was connected to the bathroom, and one on the right to his working room and his library.

Harry walked into the bedroom, his steps echoing dully on the hardwood floor, which contained a king-sized bed and lots of closets, and started undressing. He slipped out of his brown jeans and his black T-shirt and changed into casual trousers and a sport shirt. He opened on of the closets and extracted a pair of trainers, before dumping his discarded clothes in the hamper, holding the dirty ones. He put on the trainers and took a moment to regard himself in the big silver mirror which hung at a wall of the bedroom.

A young man in his early twenties looked back at him. Harry's hair was as unruly as it had ever been and he had given up any hope that it would ever lie flat. He had grown up to six feet two inches and while still being lean, had developed a fair bit of muscle, due to his Auror training. He had a bit of a tan, the only pale spots in his face were the two scars, the one shaped like a lighting bolt on his forehead and the cut on his left cheek. All in all he was more than satisfied with his appearance.

He grabbed his key, which he had placed on his bedside table and walked back to the living room. Just as he wanted to use magic to cook his dinner, he remembered that this wouldn't be necessary today and instead headed for the door. Putting his wand back into the pocket of his trousers, he left the apartment, heading down the flight of stairs leading to the basement.

Five minutes later he had left the apartment building and started his daily ten miles run before dinner. As an Auror he needed the stamina and in his opinion it was very relaxing. He found it easier to think after returning from a good, long run.

Harry had become an Auror four years ago. After he had defeated Voldemort and taken his N.E.W.T.s – more to shut Hermione up than because he really wanted or needed them - he had immediately signed up for the Auror training program and he finished it in under a year, much faster than anyone else of the rookies. Of course it wasn't fair to compare him with the other trainees, because he had learned nearly all of the spells an Auror had to know already, to fulfil his quest to get rid of Voldemort. Being able to control his powers very well, he had been able to learn the few spells he didn't know very fast and even breezed through potions, which wasn't too bad without Snape breathing down your neck or Slughorn babbling all the time.

Only the theoretical part of the Auror training had delayed him. The part about how to handle special situation wasn't that bad, put having to learn the Auror's handbook by heart was downright painful. After having become an Auror, Harry got promoted very quickly after rounding up a large group of Death Eaters in his first year. He was now a High-Auror and the first person in recorded history, which had achieved this rank at the age of twenty-three. He really should be happy about his work.

But he wasn't.

The group of Death Eaters he had arrested had been the only exciting case in the last four years, the rest were only dull every-day work or paperwork. Harry had become more and more bored at work and usually spent most of his time training in the Auror training room. There simply was nothing else to do! After Voldemort's fall the remaining Death Eaters were either arrested or fled, leaving the country as peaceful as it had been before his resurrection. As much as Harry had loathed having to fight Voldemort, he had realized by now that he seemed to need the excitement of a good battle.

Of course he didn't wish the old days of slaughter back, mind you, but a BIT of excitement would be more than welcome. Out of boredom, he had learned nearly all Muggle martial arts and was constantly sparring with other Aurors. His N.E.W.T.s had been pretty good and everyone would have liked to employ the famous Harry Potter, but he always knew that he wanted to be an Auror. It was sad that his dream turned out to be less exciting than he thought.

Knowing that his current train of thought would only depress him, Harry started to think of more pleasant matter. First of all how well he had been able to submerge after his appearance at his own funeral. It had been easy to arrange that he his N.E.W.T. examination took place in the Ministry rather than at Hogwarts, a necessary course of action because he really had not felt like returning to the school. It was sad that the place he had always considered home was now hunted by so many ghosts that he did not want to visit it anymore.

His post would be delivered to a post-office-box in Hogsmeade, which he had bewitched to teleport the post directly in his apartment. He had cast a special charm on him, making it impossible for any owl to find him directly, unless he had allowed it. Only the Weasleys and Hermione were able to owl him and only very few people knew that he lived in Muggle London. He was pretty sure that the reporters, who were all dieing to interview him, were still trying to learn about his whereabouts by riddling the Weasleys with questions, but he knew they would be unsuccessful.

As the thought about the Weasleys Harry's gaze settled on the rings on his hand. On his left hand he wore a silver emerald ring, which once had been his father's and he had gotten as a Christmas present from Ginny, and on his right finger a gold ring, with a single large ruby. His wedding ring. He had married Ginny a year ago and it had been the best year of his life. He still vividly remembered his wedding, which had been a very small one, because he didn't want to alert the media, and especially his wedding night. Ginny had worn a white, silken dress and he fondly remembered peeling it off her after the festivities were over.

Harry was so lost in his memories that it took it some time to realize that he was back at the apartment building. He was drenched in sweat, but otherwise felt very good and was already looking forward to his daily mediation and a hot shower. On his way back up, he ran into Mr. Curtis, one of their neighbours. He was a stocky man of around thirty-five, with short black hair, a prominent nose and a moustache. He was married and the father of two children and normally a very pleasant person. Harry and he chatted for a few minutes about nothing special, before Mr. Curtis returned to his flat.

Harry and Ginny had moved in the penthouse three years ago, wanting to take their relationship to the next level: living together. Harry had been looking for a flat for some time, wanting to finally live his own life and as soon as he had seen the new penthouse, he knew that he had to buy it. It had been expensive, yes, but in Harry's opinion it had been worth every penny. All their neighbours believed that Harry was working in the consulting company of his rich uncle, who had bought him this apartment and that Ginny was studying medicine and was working part-time at the hospital. Until now their real identity hadn't been discovered.

Harry entered his flat and slipped out of his trainers before heading to the bedroom again. He sat down Indian-style on the bed and used his wand to light the many candles placed in the room. He always found it easier to meditate in twilight. Using the Focus Arcanum, a meditation technique he had learned out of one the books Remus gave him six years ago, Harry practiced channelling his magical energies. This had allowed him to gather enough power to fight and defeat Voldemort. Over the last years, he had become so adapt at controlling his magical energy that he could cast simple spells now without using his wand. It was far harder than casting spells the normal way, but Harry considered it wise to have a trump up the sleeve for almost every situation.

During the meditation his mind was exceptionally clear; he often relieved the passed day during his sessions and analyzed it more deeply. After a while - it was always hard to measure time while you are meditating - he felt Ginny approaching the door to the apartment. His ability to feel other person's minds was another very useful feat he had acquired during his crusade against Voldemort. It allowed him to feel if any persons were nearby and also to recognize people by the unique pattern their thoughts and feelings formed.

He rose from the bed and walked to the front door, which promptly swung open, revealing his wife standing on the threshold. Ginny was wearing a bright red T-shirt - matching her hair - and blue jeans. Most of her fiery hair had been pulled back in a pony tail, only a few wisps were still falling in her face. She looked tired, but her chocolate-coloured eyes lit up she spotted her husband.

"Hey sweetheart", she said, pulling Harry into a hug. "Merlin, what a rough day, I swear I will throw the biggest party you have ever seen when I am through with healer training."

Once again Harry was amazed how much she had grown over the last years. She was now five feet eight inches tall, only four inches smaller than him.

"Rough day, huh?" he asked, gently lifting her head with a hand before capturing her lips with a passionate kiss. His tongue entered her mouth and tangled with hers, sending shivers of pleasure down their spines.

"That's truly a nice way to be welcomed home", she said, grinning mischievously, after they had broken apart. "Yeah, I had a rough day, patients running my door in. You won't believe how hard a trainee healer at St. Mungo's has to work. Let's have a quite evening tonight, shall we? Tomorrow will be Friday and we can go out all over the weekend."

Harry knew exactly what Ginny meant by a "quite evening", as she started to trail kisses down his neck. He hated to be a spoilsport, but they had others plans this evening.

"Sorry to disturb your plan Gin, but we are having dinner with Ron and Hermione tonight at 9 o'clock. That means we've got only half an hour to get ready and to go to Salvatore's, you know, the small Italian restaurant two blocks down."

Ginny groaned, having completely forgotten about that. Even though it would be nice to see Ron and Hermione again, she was very tired and longed for a bit of privacy with her husband.

"Well", she said, "I guess trying to talk you into not going would be pointless, so let's head to the shower together and get ready."

"Oh no." replied Harry grinning. "If we both shower at the same time, we will emerge even dirtier than we were before. No way. I'm going to go first and you'll go second. Normally it would be 'ladies first', but I simply shower faster. Don't worry, we won't be staying too long, we still will have enough time just for the two of us."

Ginny grudgingly gave in and fifteen minutes later both of the left the apartment. Harry was wearing dark-blue jeans, a bright orange T-shirt embroidered with the name of his favourite Muggle rock band and their logo, a black, flaming skull, a black leather jacket and black trainers. Ginny was wearing a white skirt and a light blue blouse, her hair still pulled back in the messy ponytail. They decided to walk instead of Apparating and arrived at Salvatore's ten minutes later, finding Ron and Hermione already seated at a table, which had been placed outside, due to the warm weather.

Both of them hadn't changed much. Ron was as tall as ever, now nearly six feet six inches tall, with lots of freckles and fiery hair. The only change in his physique was that he had grown much broader, due to playing keeper at the Chudley Cannons.

Hermione's appearance had only changed slightly, as well. Her brown hair was still somewhere between curly and bushy, but it was much shorter than it had been; now only barely reaching her shoulders. Both of them were dressed in casual Muggle clothes.

Hermione spotted Harry and Ginny first, and promptly enveloped them in a big hug while squealing with joy.

"HARRY, GINNY, oh it has been much too long."

"Let them breath Hermione", interrupted Ron, grinning. "Hey sis, Harry, it's really great to see you. Sit down."

"Thanks Ron", said Harry, smiling at his best mate and brother-in-law and sat down at the table, followed swiftly by Ginny. "How are you? As far as I can tell you still aren't married."

"We are simply great Harry", replied Hermione beaming. "And no, we still aren't married, even though you have been pushing us for ages now. Ron it often on the road with his team and I am often tied up at my work as a spellmaker at the Ministry, so we don't have much time together. Nevertheless we have decided to take our relationship to the next level. The Quidditch season won't start for another two months and we're going to move together in a week. We have found a nice apartment here in London and…"

"..are willing to take the risk of seeing each other twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week", finished Ron dryly. "Prepare yourself for some world-shaking rows."

Just as Hermione opened her mouth, probably to tell Ron that she didn't agree at all with his pessimistic way of thinking, the waiter arrived and quelled the brewing argument by asking them to order. Instead of further discussing their relationship any further, Ron and Hermione decided to riddle Ginny and Harry with as much questions as possible.

"Well, Harry, Ginny, tell us about being married." said Hermione. "The last time we saw you was nearly eight months ago, on Mrs. Weasley's birthday and then you've just been back from your honeymoon in the Caribbean."

"Don't worry Hermione." replied Ginny, smiling. "Everything is just perfect. Green Eyes over there is treating me very nicely indeed."

Ron, who had just been taking a sip of soft drink, suddenly started spraying his drink everywhere.

"Green Eyes???" he asked, startled. "What kind of name is THAT supposed to be?"

Harry felt himself blushing slightly before responding.

"It's a nickname Ginny gave me during our honeymoon, nothing to be shocked about Ron. Don't tell me that you don't have any nicknames for Hermione."

"I think it's simply cute." said Hermione softly, causing both Ron and Harry to roll their eyes. Dinner arrived swiftly and was spent with small talk; Hermione riddling Ginny about being married to Harry, while Ron and Harry were talking about Quidditch, especially about Ron's performance during the last season.

"By the way Harry." asked Ron after dinner. "Are you still so frustrated with being an Auror? You've complained a lot about it being very boring at the moment."

Harry sighed, not really wanting to talk about that topic.

"Yeah, I still am. There's some hope though. I talked to Wright today and he made me an interesting proposal."

John Wright was the current Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Office, a tall, lean, ascetic looking man in his fifties, with short silver hair and light blue eyes.

"Really?" asked Ginny, surprised. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, we didn't really have the time to talk about my job, had we? Nevertheless there's a bunch of recruits coming in, who have enrolled for Auror training. Their apprenticeship is scheduled to begin tomorrow, but their original instructor, the old Auror Hartman, isn't feeling too well at the moment and won't be able to train them. There aren't many Aurors around who are willing to take care of the rookies and Wright knows how bored I am at the moment, so he offered me the position. Of course I accepted immediately."

"Oh Harry, that's so great." squealed Ginny, hugging her husband. "Finally you've got something to do at work."

"But Harry", piped up Hermione. "You are only twenty-three years old; do you already have the required rank to train the recruits?"

"Hermione, you are talking to the bloody Boy-Who-Lived.", chuckled Harry. "As I arrested these Death Eaters a few years ago, I was immediately promoted to High Auror status, the second highest rank that exists. Of course my reputation as the great saviour helped greatly. All in all I think I'm more than qualified to train a few rookies."

"Right.", said Ron. "But let's talk about the really important issues now; when do you think I'm going to be an uncle?"

Harry was a bit taken aback by this question. When had Ron developed a love for kids? Ginny, on the other hand, seemed to have anticipated it.

"For heaven's sake Ron." she replied, rolling her eyes. "You have asked me that question about a dozen times at Mum's birthday and the answer is still the same: I've got my healer exam in December and I need the time to study instead of shopping for baby clothes. If you like babies so much, then why aren't you a father yet? I'm sure Hermione would be more than happy to comply."

This effectively stifled Ron and they continued chatting for an hour, before saying goodbye and heading back to their homes.

- - - - -

Harry hadn't even been able to close the door behind them, before Ginny captured his lips in a heated and passionate kiss. Their tongue tangled and started to dance with a ferocity that left both of them breathless. After about two minutes they broke apart, both of them in desperate need of oxygen. Harry used this short break to close the door behind them and to slip out of his trainers before scooping his wife up in his arms and kissing her again. She moaned as his tongue entered her mouth and hungrily kissed him back.

Slowly Harry started to feel his way to the bedroom, which wasn't quite easy while kissing one's wife and carrying her in one's arms. To make matters worse, Ginny abandoned his mouth just as he entered the living room only to start kissing and sucking his neck. A part of Harry's neck was extremely sensitive and he started to moan, feeling raw lust flooding his mind.

After what felt like an eternity he finally reached their bed and gently lowered Ginny on the silken covers, stopping her ministration to his neck and capturing her lips with another mind-numbing kiss. He was beside himself with arousal now and judging by her eyes, which were black with lust, and her hard nipples poking through the thin fabric of her blouse, Ginny shared his state-of-mind.

Much too impatient to undress normally, Harry started to tap his magic powers, vanishing Ginny's and his clothes wandlessly. The discarded garments appeared neatly folded next to the bed. Harry abandoned his wife's mouth and started to trail butterfly kisses down her neck, on her collarbone. Encouraged by her throaty moans, he started to suck her right nipple, causing her to gasp. Knowing exactly what she wanted Harry continued his journey downwards, sucking gently on her navel, before reaching her wet, throbbing core.

He started to suck her clit and smiled smugly as she cried out his name and buried her hands in his hair. Once again Harry congratulated himself for placing Silencing Charms around the apartment. After only thirty seconds Ginny started bucking below him and clamping her legs around his head, as her orgasm hit her. Harry patiently waited for her to regain at least a bit of control. Finally she released his head and muttered a single word: "Harry…"

Harry didn't need more encouragement. He was rock hard by now and more than eager to get a bit of release himself. He climbed back on the bed and gently slipped inside her, causing her to moan throatily. Granting her a moment to adjust to him, he kissed her again, once more overwhelmed by the searing passion radiating from her.

He started to thrust, slowly at first, but picking up speed quickly. One of his hands snaked down to her clit and started to stroke it, while he continued to make love to her mouth. Harry felt his climax approaching at top speed, but he knew by experience that Ginny would come first.

Just as Ginny started to buck under him, he came as well and for a moment both of their brains were aflame with pleasure. After a few minutes of recovery they snuggled into each other, both of them falling asleep almost instantly.


	2. More Than Meets The Eye

**Chapter 2: More than meets the eye**

the next morning, Harry's apartment:

Ginny hated to get up early. She knew that she had to rise early to reach St. Mungos in time, but that didn't make it more enjoyable. Lying on her belly,she snuggled into her wonderfully warm and soft bed and simply decided to stay there and to sleep forever. Unfortunately even the best laid plans can be thwarted and this morning Ginny worst opponent was Harry Potter.

Just as started drifting back to sleep, she felt someone, or to be more specific, a certain someone, starting to trail kisses down and up her neck, effectively dispelling all chances of going back to sleep. Ginny stirred, trying to shush away the intruder only to discover that he was lying on her back, pinning her beneath him. No matter how hard she tried, he simply wouldn't budge.

"Okay, okay, bugger off, I'm standing up.", she said, finally admitting defeat.

Immediately she was released and rolled on her back, directly looking in the beaming face of Harry Potter. He was sitting on the bed on her right, wearing blue jeans and black socks and holding a steaming mug in his hands.

"Morning sleepyhead." he replied cheekily, smiling his most cocky smile. "Here's your daily dose of energy."

He passed the mug to her and she was more than pleased to find it filled with steaming coffee, her big addiction.

"With cream and two lumps of sugar?" she asked, smiling.

"Of course."

Ginny took a sip and immediately felt a little bit less tired. After two more sips, she focused her gaze back on her husband.

"Do you know that you are a god sometimes?"

"Hey, I'm your husband", he replied, grinning. "Isn't it my job to fulfil all your wishes and desires?"

"Yeah, that's your job." she said, as her gaze settled on his bare chest. "Have I told you already that I love what Auror training did to your body?"

"No, but I guessed you liked it. Nevertheless I got to dash, the rookies are waiting. It's half past seven by the way, you should get up now. I've prepared some breakfast for you."

"Half past seven?" she shrieked, leaping out of the bed. "I've got to be at the hospital at eight o'clock. Why didn't you wake me earlier?"

"Well, it's not my fault that it takes you ages to wake up." Harry replied, changing into his Auror robes. "Don't worry, you'll arrive on time. See you this evening."

He kissed her goodbye and left the flat, Disapparating outside, due to the Anti-Apparation-wards he had planted in the apartment, leaving a slightly panicky Ginny Potter behind.

- - - - -

a small room in the Ministry of Magic, half an hour later:

Sara Carter was bored and anxious at the same time. She was a pretty girl of eighteen, with a heart-shaped face, shoulder-length blonde hair, which she was wearing in a ponytail and deep blue eyes. She was sitting in a rectangular room, which was equipped like a Hogwarts classroom with about twenty desks and a teacher's desk. The only sources of illumination were the sooty torches, which hung at the walls in regular intervals.

Nineteen other Auror apprentices were seated at the desks, many of them old members of her year at Hogwarts. She spotted one of her ex-fellow Ravenclaws, Sean White, at a table on the other side of the room. Sean was a tall boy, with very short black hair and grey eyes. He had a pleasant face which usually sported looks of either boredom or smug satisfaction. He had always been a bit arrogant and Sara was sure that this would cause some trouble during their training.

Her first day at a would-be-Auror had started terrible. First of all she had to rise at the ungodly hour of half-past five, because she had to at the Ministry at seven o'clock and of course had to look half-way presentable. Of course she had overslept and had to skip breakfast to make it in time, only to get lectured by a withering, old fool about the great importance of the Aurors to the society and what an honour it was to do this job. Then they had been ushered into this very room to wait for their instructor, who would coach them for the next few years.

By now her stomach was grumbling loudly and she made a mental note to grab a bite as soon as possible. The fact that their instructor had not bothered to show up yet and was now five minutes behind the schedule did not improve her mood. Sara had a very vivid image of him in her mind. Of course it had to be a male, because the Auror department was one of the most old-fashioned departments of the Ministry. While they had no problems of letting woman join the department, there hadn't been a female instructor for the last 150 years.

Also he would be so old that he would barely been able to remember the last battle he fought and would be much too senile to remember their names. Somehow they would cheat their ways through the practical exams and would finish their training without having really learned anything. Yeah, Sara Carter had a very detailed image of the next few years in her head.

How mistaken she was.

Suddenly the only door to the room opened and a young man entered the room, wearing Auror robes. Auror robes look mostly like plain black wizard robes, only two differences are striking. First of all there are two coloured stripes on them, each of them starting at a shoulder and running down the complete body. Also a wand with sparks flying from it is embroidered on the front of the robes. Both the logo and the stripes come in different colours, determining its wearer's rank.

Normally they are white, trainees are sporting blue ones, high-aurors red ones. The man who had just entered the room was wearing the robes of a High-Auror. He appeared to be in his early twenties, a handsome young man with a thin face, messy, charcoal hair and deep green eyes. He was broad shouldered and seemed to be in good physical shape, as far as the bulky Auror robes permitted judgement about that.

The atmosphere in the room, which had tensed as the door opened, relaxed as soon as the students saw who had entered the room. Like Sara most of them expected an old instructor and thought they were looking at a young Auror, probably still a trainee himself. Sara, however, knew that there was more about this man than what caught the eye. Trainees didn't waltz around in High-Auror robes and his face looked madding familiar.

The young man walked to the teacher's desk in front of the room and stood behind it. Some of the students fell quiet but most remained talking to each other. The 'trainee' cleared his throat and finally the students feel quiet and focused their attention on the young man.

"Well finally." he said in a deep, calming voice. "Welcome new students, eventful times lie ahead. My name is..."

"Are you the instructor's assistant?" asked Sean, cutting of the young man right at the beginning of his speech.

The young Auror's brows furrowed at being interrupted and for the first time Sara realized that he was sporting a small, white scar on his left cheek. Sarah did not know whether it was the result of a duel to the death or of a kitchen accident, but it made its bearer look older and somehow more experienced.

"What do you mean?" he asked his voice still polite, but irritation sparkling in his eyes.

"Well you are much too young to be an instructor and still you're here", continued Sean. "The only explanation why you could be here and be wearing this robes is that your job is to assist the instructor and that they lent you this robes to stress your position."

For a few seconds nothing happened, the young man simply blinking in disbelief at Sean. Suddenly he burst out laughing and had to grab the desk in support or he would have fallen at the floor. The students just stared at him in confusion until he had regained enough composure to continue speaking.

"That's a good one", he said, his green eyes sparkling with amusement. "Ever thought of becoming a comedian? Nevertheless I can assure you that I am not an apprentice to anyone, but your very instructor and I've earned this robe by my work alone, thank you very much."

"But that's completely impossible", said Sean, not buying a word from that. "Is this some kind of test? How old are you? Twenty-two, twenty-three? No one has ever become a High-Auror at this age. So either you are an impostor or you are testing us. In each case I passed."

"Ah yes, the old problem with my age. You, Sean, are not as smart as you think", the young man answered, even though Sara was sure that Sean hadn't told him his name. "However your doubts will be dispelled and your questions answered soon, it's all connected with my name. I'm …"

And suddenly everything clicked into place in Sara's head. "You are Harry Potter", she said in disbelief.

Deafening silence followed her words. Everyone remained frozen in his or her last movements, as though time had decided to stop for a moment. Finally Harry broke the silence. Smiling, he pushed back his fringe, revealing the tell-tale scar, which had been hidden under it. "Yeah, I know I am", he replied, smiling, remembering a similar dialogue with Luna Lovegood in his fifth year.

"But, but, but Harry Potter hasn't been seen for….", started Sean.

"About five years, the last time, as I showed up at my own funeral", replied Harry. "I vanished from the public to live my own life for the first time ever. I had no desire to spend my days dodging the reporters, who would sell their souls for an interview. So I made sure that no one but a few friends could find me and settled down in a Muggle apartment."

This was true; he had indeed moved out of the Burrow as fast as possible, craving for some privacy and made himself at home in a small flat at the outskirts of London, which Tonks had arranged for him.

He continued speaking, making a mental note of not mentioning that he was married, being more than able to image vividly the roman holiday 'Witch Weekly' would have with that information. He kicked himself for not taking off his ring, but it was impossible to take it off now without looking suspicious.

"I enrolled for Auror training and the Ministry made sure that not the tiniest scrap of information about this reached the public. They were very eager to comply to my wishes, probably feeling like they owed me something after I saved their sorry asses. I was finished within a year and worked as an Auror ever since. As your original instructor, Auror Hartman, broached that he didn't feel well enough to train you, I was asked to take over. And here I am."

Harry knew that he had to act fast or the students would start to riddle him with questions about his past or about his personal life and he would like to avoid the topic. During his life he had grown to a very suspicious person and learned that it was wiser not to reveal too much information about oneself.

"I know that you are nearly bursting with all kind of questions about me or my life, but I'm not here to talk about myself, but to teach you. I've never enjoyed being a celebrity and I'm never going to."

"We understand, Mr. Potter, Sir", said a young, black man, with a sympathetic face and long, black dreadlocks, who was seated in the first row. Sara recognized him. His name was Booker Kane, one of the Gryffindors, who graduated with her. The only thing she knew about him was his reputation of a womanizer, which he had earned during his time at Hogwarts. She made a mental note of keeping a close eye on him.

Harry was startled at being addressed as 'sir' and he didn't like it a bit.

"Please, call me Harry", he said. "I'm young enough to be your older brother and all this sir-stuff is making me feel old."

"You are young enough to be our boyfriend", a female student called, causing the room to burst out laughing.

"Point taken." replied Harry, smiling. "However, now it's time to start. All of you want to be Aurors as soon as possible. Before we start your training, there are several important things you have to know."

"First of all your education consists of a theoretical and a practical part. You'll spend your Thursdays and Fridays listening to some teachers lecturing you about magical law and the proper way to handle certain situations. This is boring as hell, but it's necessary. The lectures are held in auditoriums here at the Ministry, you'll receive a timetable today, which will help you to at the right place at the right time."

"The rest of your week, you'll spend training with me. All of you are adept at Defence against the Dark Arts, but you wouldn't last a minute in serious combat. That's why I'm here. I'm going to teach you all the stuff you'll need to stay alive until you are retiring. This includes all kind of combat spells, transfiguration, potion-making, duelling, tracking, interrogation and gathering information."

"Also you have to be in good physical shape to become and Auror. To pass the exam you have to run five miles in less then half an hour and I doubt that anyone of you could do this at the moment. I also will teach you some Muggle martial arts, which are highly useful, but not official part of the curriculum."

"There is no fixed date when you have to take your exams; you just take them, when you feel ready. You'll have a theoretical exam, a practical exam and a physical test and you are free to take them one at time or all at once. Theoretically you've got as much time as you want to finish you training, the average is three years, but I would consider choosing another career if you aren't finished in five years. So far so good, any questions?"

Sean White raised his hand.

"Why do we have to learn martial arts?" he asked, his brows furrowed in confusion. "We are Wizards after all, why should we employ Muggle methods if it's easier to use magic?"

Harry smiled at this question. Sean possessed an almost natural arrogance many Wizards sported regarding all things Muggles ever invented.

"You know Sean, I'm going to show you. All of you, follow me." he replied and left the room. They walked for about two minutes, climbing down hidden stairs which lead deep into the Ministry. Finally they arrived in a vast hall, their boots echoing dully on the marble floor. Most of the hall was riddled with circular pits, each of them thirty feet in diameter. They could see a few Aurors duelling in some of them, but most of the pits were empty.

"Welcome to the Arena, the primary training centre of Aurors of all age." said Harry. "You'll spend a lot of time sweating in the pits so you should make yourself familiar with this place. You'll be able to reach the Arena through many different ways; I doubt that anyone knows all of them."

He was cut off, by someone slapping him on the shoulder. He wheeled around and came face to face with a beaming Tonks, who was sporting neon green hair today.

"Wotcher Harry", she said. "What brings you down here?"

"Hi Tonks", he replied, "You really have to work at your sneaking skills; I was able to hear you trampling in my direction. Folks, this is Nymphadora Tonks, one of the finest aurors around."

Tonks slapped him playfully on the arm, for using her first name and for exaggerating.

"You watch it Potter or I will be forced to kick your skinny arse", she replied playfully. "Anway, what are you going to show the rookies?"

"I'm here to demonstrate them how useful martial arts can be. By the way, how's your old wolf of a husband?"

"He's really fine", replied Tonks grinning. "He still got some problems finding a job, but we can live comfortably on my salary. But I really shouldn't keep you from teaching; show the rookies what you can do."

"I'll do my best", said Harry, loosening the wand holster strapped to his wrist and giving it to Tonks. "I'm now going to demonstrate how to fight an enemy without a wand. As you've seen, I've given my wand away. Normally a wizard without a wand isn't really a danger for an enemy with one, but with the correct technique you'll be able to best them nevertheless."

"I'm going to demonstrate this with Sean. Follow me to the pit over there and gather round; everyone should be able to see properly."

They walked over the nearest pit and as they approached it a staircase appeared leading down into the small arena. Harry and Sean walked down in the pit and stood facing each other, twenty feet separating them, while the students and Tonks gathered round the pit. Suddenly a small ball of energy appeared over the pit, directly between the two men in the small arena.

"Okay Sean, here's the plan", Harry started, "You are going to try to incapacitate me, using whatever you feel appropriate, except for Unforgiveables, of course. I'm not going to use any magic, but trust me, I'll be victorious. We will start as soon as the little sphere there bursts."

"He can't win this can he?" asked Booker as the two combatants got ready.

"Trust me, he can", replied Tonks, smiling smugly, looking down at the two persons in the arena. Sean looked very nervous, but was grim faced and seemed to want to prove himself, while Harry appeared to be totally relaxed.

Precisely in this moment the sphere burst.

Sean immediately shot a stunner at Harry, which would have ended the fight if Harry had still been standing there. Directly after the fight began, Harry had rolled left, effectively dodging the curse and was already advancing at top speed. Before Sean realized what happened and recovered enough to use his advantage of range, Harry was already in striking distance and hit him square in the solar plexus. The strike knocked all the wind out of Sean, who promptly fell on his knees, allowing Harry to disarm him, by administering a strike with the edge of his hand to Sean's wrist. Suddenly Sean found himself face to face with his own wand, a grinning Harry looking down on him.

"You see?" he said. "That's why we are learning martial arts."

- - - - -

It was exactly five pm when Harry pushed open the door leading to John Wright's office to start their daily debriefing. Since Harry had arrested the Death Eaters during his first year as an Auror, Wright had considered him as his second-in-command and the two of them had started their tradition of a debriefing shortly after this incident. Also they had become good friends over the years.

Harry walked inside and found John sitting in his usual position behind his desk, which was always littered with so many reports, letters, memos etc. that it was impossible to see. As always, the ascetic looking man had already uncorked a bottle of whiskey, plain Muggle bourbon, no firewiskey, and two empty shot glasses were placed in front of him, above the heap of paper on his desk.

Wright's light-blue eyes locked with Harry's emerald green ones and a smile appeared on his normally solemn face.

"You are not on duty, are you Harry?" he asked, lifting one of the glasses. "May I tempt you?"

"Technically I still am, but there aren't any bad guys around at the moment so one or two drunken aurors won't do any harm."

"Yeah, chances of becoming an Archauror are pretty bad at the moment, aren't they?"

To become an Archauror, the highest rank in the Department of Magical Law Enforce, a High-Auror has to do something extremely valuable for the society, under jeopardy of his or her own life. The last know Archauror was Sara Shacklebolt - one of Kingsley's ancestors - who got promoted for killing a party of six liches, who had planned to rise an undead army to overthrow the Ministry, nearly one hundred fifty years ago.

Harry set down at the desk facing his superior, while Wright filled the glasses. Wright was wearing the robes of a High-Auror, but as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement four golden stars had been embroidered in his collar.

"Here you are", said Wright, "Your turn or mine?"

"Yours", replied Harry. This was an old game of them, on each day one of them had to invent a new toast, without repeating any old ones, of course. Usually this resulted in hilarious inventions.

"Okay, to the incredible pleasure of kicking a bad guys' ass so hard that he won't be able to sit for the next two years. Cheers!"

Both men drained their glasses of gold-brown liquid, feeling the warmth of the liquid spreading inside of them. They put their glasses down and returned to business.

"Right, how was your first day with the rookies?" asked Wright.

"Not bad, I spent most time testing the waters, like I suspected these kids are very good for Hogwarts' standard, but they wouldn't survive an encounter with a group of Death Eaters."

"Ah yes. Harry, you're probably one of the most paranoid guys in our profession, second only to good-old Mad-Eye", replied Wright, smiling. "There aren't any Death Eaters left to slaughter our newbies, you and the rest of the Aurors took care of that. Well after everything you faced who could blame you and being prepared won't do any harm if a real crisis occurs. Were there any problems during their first training session?"

"Nothing serious, they had some trouble believing me that I'm their instructor. Young age isn't always an advantage. Oh, and the usual I'm-a-wizard-why-do-I-have-to-learn-Muggle-things-complex."

"Ah yes, the old problem. It has been around, since you suggested training all Aurors in Muggle martial arts. I'm tired of smoothing this discussion. You're the instructor, you've got my permission to teach them everything you think appropriate."

"What about elemental magic?", interrupted Harry. Elemental magic was very old magic, which was used to control the four elements: earth, air, water and fire. Normally these spells were very hard to cast and even harder to control. Due to this, easier to cast combat magic had replaced them over the course of the centuries. Out of pure boredom Harry had spent countless hours digging through ancient pieces of parchment during the last few years and he had succeeded in learning some of the old spells and while they were hard to control and required a lot of energy their age gave them a enormous advantage over newer spells: almost no opponent knew how to properly counter them. A magma jet blasts straight through any shield charm and if an opponent does not know this spell, he or she will most likely try to block it, completely unaware of the impending danger.

"I doubt that they'll be able to cast these spells, but if you think it will help them go right ahead", said Wright. "By the way, how's Ginny? Do you to have any plans for the evening?"

"She's fine, thank you. Today's Friday so we'll be going out, probably in a Muggle club or a restaurant. Wizard establishments are out of bounds, due to obvious reasons. Are you going to see any of your children this weekend?"

Wright had been married for three times and had four children, living with their mothers. Harry had never been able to remember which child he had with which wife or when he would be seeing whom.

"No, I'm free this weekend." replied Wright, his face impassive. "I think I'm going to watch a few Quidditch matches or simply get myself wasted in a dungy bar; you've got to gather information after all and there's no better way to get them, than talking to a few shady fellows in their natural environment. Well, there's only one more thing, before we're finished. The Minister wants one of his bureaucrats to supervise you training the recruits."

Before Harry could object, Wright cut him off and continued.

"I know you don't like it and I don't like it either, but there's nothing we can do. Just try being civil to the supervisor, it'll make things easier. He's waiting outside the door at the moment; I think you've already met. Come in!"

The heavy, oaken door opened and Harry was startled to see Percy Weasley entering the office.

- - - - -

Harry was still fuming when he pushed open the door leading to his apartment. The mere fact that the Ministry was considering it necessary to supervise him was somewhere between ridiculous and downright insulting. Normally the instructor could teach whatever he or she thought appropriate if the superior agreed to it. That the Minister himself sent one of his lapdogs to witness the training was extremely unusual. Harry was taxing his brain to find any reason for this strange behaviour. Truth be told, his relationship with Scrimgeour, who had claimed lot of the praise for rounding up the remaining Death Eaters, had been icy since he had refused to be the Ministry's mascot on Christmas in his sixth year. During the last five years they had been avoiding each other as much as possible. The last time Harry had actually spoken to Scrimgeour during the last years, had been when he had received his Order of Merlin, First Class, in a private ceremony, shortly after his reappearance. The Order was currently oxidizing somewhere in his flat for Harry had never regarded it as something to be proud of.

He still distrusted every politician, the trouble with Umbridge during his fifth year had taught him never to trust a person working in this profession. In his opinion the Ministry was in the bad need of a complete makeover, especially in their attitude towards werewolves and houseelves. He had no intention of going into politics, but he would be one of the first to support any revolutionary movements in the Ministry. As he mulled over this thought something clicked in his brain and suddenly he knew why the Minister was keeping such a close eye on him.

It was the same reason why Umbridge had refused them to do magic during their fifth year. Scrimgeour suspected him of training his own personal army! The thought was as ridiculous as it was logical. The Minister knew his attitude towards the Ministry itself and towards him as a person. Combined with Harry's fame, fortune and powers, his attitude became a potentially dangerous mixture. Therefore Scrimgeour had sent one of his most loyal lapdogs, Percy Weasley, who had proven his loyalty to the Ministry for several times now.

That after everything he had done for the Wizarding World, after all the blood he had shed to protect the society, the Minister still did not trust him at all enraged and depressed him at the same time. Pushing the dark thoughts out of his head, he entered his flat.

- - - - -

shortly before midnight, in a flat on the other side of London:

Hermione was snuggling deeper in the soft and warm covers of her bed, enjoying the feeling of the fabric on her nude body. Ron was still away drinking with the other members of the Chudley Cannons, as he did every Friday, and Hermione had spent the evening on her own. She had brooded over the arithmancy tables of an infravision spell; she was currently working on, searching for any flaws in it. Each spell was clearly defined by these columns of numbers, and experimental spells had to be checked for unwanted side effects for several times, before they were cast for the first time.

She had eaten dinner, which had magically cooked itself, after two hours of unproductive work and then decided to call it an evening. After taking a long, hot, steamy bath, she had brushed her teeth and went to bed around eleven o'clock. The last hour she had spent trying to get to sleep and right now she was in a state of half-wakefulness.

Her mind was too foggy with sleep to realize that the bedroom door had opened or to register the light footsteps of a shadow advancing towards the bed. She didn't notice a thing until the person had reached the bed.

Suddenly Hermione felt the weight of another body directly next to her. She couldn't see who it was because she was lying on her belly, but immediately turned her head and fumbled for her wand which was lying on her bedside table. However, before she could do anything, she felt lips crushing against hers and another body pressing against hers. After a split second of horror, she realized that it was Ron, who had come home from his bar-hopping with his fellow team members.

"Merlin, Ron, you startled me", she said angrily, after she had clamed down enough to reply. "What were you trying to do, give me a heart attack?"

Ron didn't even bother to reply, but simply kissed her again, his tongue brushing her lips, demanding entrance. All of Hermione's anger evaporated, as his tongue entered her mouth and started to dance with her own. She savoured his taste, a spicy one of cinnamon and oranges, with a hint of Firewhiskey today. Moaning in his mouth, she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close and was a bit disappointed to discover, that he still was completely dressed.

Ron abandoned her mouth only to trail kisses down her sensitive neck, granting special attention to her collarbone. Hermione was unwilling to waste any time, so she started to fumble for her wand again. Hungry to feel his burning lips on hers again, she pushed his head up with one of her hands and kissed him, while the other finally found her wand. Quickly, she vanished Ron's clothes and the feeling of flesh pressing against flesh caused her to gasp. Ron broke their searing kiss and started to suck on her left nipple, enjoying himself immensely as Hermione called out his name.

One of his hands buried itself in her hair, while the other one snaked down her body until it found the centre of her womanhood. He started to stroke her clit, feeling her bucking under him. Suddenly Hermione's vision exploded into many black dots, as her orgasm assaulted her brain. The sensation was so intense, that her eyes started watering and she wished that she could keep this feeling forever.

Ron patiently waited for her first orgasm to die down. After a short while, she simply nodded and he slipped inside, burying himself up to the hilt in her. Ron started slowly, but picked up speed quickly, knowing he wouldn't last for a long time after all the Firewhiskey he had consumed. The sensation of making love to Hermione never ceased to amaze him, she was a flame he was drawn to, like a common moth.

Both of them were quick to reach their orgasms and spent a few moments just lying in each other's arms, catching were breaths. Finally Ron broke the silence:

"How was you day?"

- - - - -

In the meantime, the east coast of Great Britain:

Crosis was standing on a high cliff and waited impatiently for the others to arrive. He was already in a bad mood and their lateness didn't help to improve it. Finally, already half an hour late, two spots appeared on the horizon, one east and one west.

"Finally", barked Corsis as Anhur and Shai landed next to him. "I asked you to be here half-an-hour ago, why the hell are you late?"

"If you had chosen a more civilized place, we would have made it earlier." replied Shai in her cold, clear voice, which was remarkably similar to a glass bell ringing. She pushed her long, golden hair behind her ears and gestured at their surroundings. Only water and deserted, rocky landscape were to be seen, a spot Crosis had chosen for its solitude. "The next time it would be nice to set up a beacon instead of describing the way."

Before Crosis could respond, Anhur interrupted him, his divided face sporting what appeared to be an angry scowl.

"Also, who made you our chief? It's bad enough that I still have to put up with you two losers after more than four thousand years, so don't taunt me Crosis. I'm the strongest of you and as soon as Tourach shows up, I'm going to crush you both!"

"That's exactly why I have called you", said Crosis, completely unimpressed by Anhur's threats. "All of us have come to this country, beckoned by an aura very similar to Tourach's, but he hasn't show up yet. Also I haven't been able to find him; his energy seems to be anywhere. I've got no idea what he's playing at. Maybe he's taking his time preparing himself, maybe he's a bit rusted in after four thousand years, in each case we can't start without him."

"What confuses me even more is that we are speaking this strange language, instead of our own ancient tongue. We are bound to be able to communicate with Tourach, but why should he speak another language by now? Nothing of this is making sense and as far as I know our options are very limited. We either could wait for him to show up or we could _motivate_ him to show himself."

"What do you have in mind, Crosis?" asked Shai, her eyes narrowed. She had always regarded his ideas dangerous at best.

"Well, we could cause a bit of destruction. Tourach has always been protective for the persons not involved in our conflict; maybe this would lure him out of his hiding."

"But this is going to enrage him and I don't fancy being at the receiving end of his wrath." replied Anhur. "This should be the last straw we use."

"Hey that's actually clever, Anhur, you've been practicing?" replied Crosis, in a voice filled with faked amazement. "Right, here's my suggestion: We wait for two more weeks and if he hasn't shown up then, we'll carry out my plan, deal?"

"Deal", replied the others.


	3. That Old Familar Feeling

To say that Sara Carter was exhausted would be the understatement of the century. She had come home a few minutes ago and was currently kicking herself for deciding to become an Auror. It had been two weeks since she had started her training under Harry's guidance and he was pushing them mercilessly to their limits. Today was Wednesday and she was glad that the next two days would be spent with theoretical lessons, which were boring, but at least relaxing.

After eating what was left over from dinner and chatting a bit with her parents, she decided to take a long, hot bath to sooth her aching body. Honestly, she didn't even know that there were so many muscles in the human body! It felt as though every one of them was complaining on every movement she made. Damn Harry Potter!

She entered the bathroom and filled the huge tub with almost scalding water and added a few oils to the mix. She quickly undressed and stepped into the water, enjoying the sensation of her cramped muscles relaxing. She closed her eyes and though about the last two weeks.

Truth be told, no one could claim that Auror training was boring. Harry was extremely motivated and an incredibly good teacher, but he also was very pushy. He had arranged a very tight, some would call it sadistic, training schedule for them. Every morning, at eight o'clock, they would meet in the arena to practice duelling. When Harry had first told them that they would spent a lot of their training sweating in the pits, most of the students thought he was exaggerating.

However this had changed after two weeks. Now every one of them had realized how serious their trainer had been. Each day they would spend two hours in the pits under Harry's guidance. Either he would divide them into pairs and supervise their duels, offering advice how to improve their fighting style or he would personally spar with them, which usually led to extremely short duels.

After these two hours most of the students were already exhausted and grumbled about how tiring the training was. Harry however would either give them a lecture about the importance stamina in their profession or would simply ignore their complaints.

Directly after their duelling practice, they would start to learn and practice the spells, which they would need as an Auror. For example they had learned how to cast the Disillusionment Charm or a highly useful tracking charm, which allowed the cast to know where the charmed person currently was and where it was heading.

At the moment they were practice a spell which caused a flame to erupted form the casters wand, incinerating everyone foolish enough to touch it. The flame itself wasn't very hot, but it was incredibly helpful against inferi and other heat-sensitive creatures. While not being tricky to cast, the spell was very dangerous, due to the high risk of injuring an ally or oneself by using it. Therefore Harry was teaching them how to control the heat and the length of the flame and made them practice the spell until they had really mastered it.

Also they would revise spells they had already learned at Hogwarts, especially Stunners and Shield Charms, to decrease the time it took them to cast them.

At twelve o'clock they would head to the Auror canteen for lunch, which usually was a very quiet affair, due to the enormous hunger of most of the students. While Harry spent most of the lunch hour chatting with his colleagues, especially with Tonks, they used it to quench their desire for food and/or to rest a bit, knowing that the afternoon wouldn't be any more relaxing then the morning.

After lunch they would spent two hours in the Ministry's potion lab, a vast, rectangular room, which was filled with thousands of cauldrons and tons of potion ingredients, neatly stacked in shelves on the walls. Harry would teach them how to brew the potions they would constantly need as an Auror, for example the Draught of Speed, which accelerated their movements for a few minutes. Many Aurors swallowed this potion during combat, using the extra speed they need to overwhelm their enemies. Unfortunately the potion was very draining and when it wears off after a few minutes, you were a lot slower then before. Also the main ingredient, Snapper Haulm, was toxic in high concentration, effectively limiting the potion's duration to three minutes at best.

This part of their day wasn't very interesting and many students relaxed at bit too much during the potion lessons and got careless with their potion. This usually led to results somewhere between hilarious and downright lethal, causing the professional potion masters, who also used the room, to express their disapproval in a storm of curse words directed to the apprentices.

Next step was what Harry called the 'interesting part'. He would lead them down many flights of stairs, which seemed to be completely different every time they used it, until they had reached a certain room deep under the Ministry. It was known as the 'Training Room' and was a more powerful version of the Room of Requirements in Hogwarts. Like the room in Hogwarts it adapted itself according to your wishes, but this room was even able to generate illusions of animals and/or people, which followed your command.

The illusion looked exactly like the things they were mimicking and even smelt or felt the same way. Naturally this would enable anyone entering the room to fulfil his or her private fantasies with the illusions and therefore the room was constantly monitored and access to it restricted. Also it would only follow the instructions of high ranked Ministry workers, at least being a High-Auror was required to control the room.

Harry would use the room to confront them with situations they would probably have to face while being an Auror in the most realistic way possible. For example he would show them how to pursue a fleeing suspect, who was trying to escape by using an enchantment which allowed him to jump very high or how to get a grumpy barkeeper to give one the information one desired. Naturally he had made the room transform to fit his scenarios. Therefore the students were really chasing a suspect over the roofs of nightly London or were standing in shady bars arguing with fat and always ill-humoured informants.

While all of the students considered this a very good method to learn it usually was very exhausting, partly due to the scenarios Harry created (defending oneself against illusionary Death Eaters isn't more relaxing than really battling them) and partly due to the learning-by-doing method he sported during these lessons. He would simply tell them to do it their way and then watch how they would handle this particular situations. After they were done he would give them advice how to do it properly, but nevertheless some students got frustrated after getting chucked out of the illusionary bar three times in a row.

Usually this part of their training lasted three hours and at about six o'clock they were ready to start the final lesson for the day. To be more precise Harry was ready, while the students just wanted to go home and to crawl in their beds. This last part was the most loathed by all Auror apprentices: the physical exercises. They would begin by running a few laps around the Arena, where they usually took these lessons, and a bit of stretching before coming to the really tiring parts. Harry would make them do some exercises to strengthen their muscles, including arms, legs and abdominal muscles. Most of the magical population totally resented carnal exercises except for Quidditch and therefore most of the students were aching all over after their little workout was finished. Harry kept telling them that it would get easier over the time, but this didn't really boost their moral.

Next step were the martial arts. Harry had decided to start with Akido, a defensive martial art which used the enemy's strength against him, before rounding up their education with Taek Won'Do or Karate during their training. He would show them the moves and split them into pairs to practice them, offering his advice throughout the lesson. While most of the students were deeply impressed by the show fights, in which Harry would sometimes engage with other Aurors, many of them felt awkward and clumsy during their lessons and longed for the next magical lesson.

The icing on the cake was the final two miles run, they had to complete before being allowed to leave. They didn't have to finish it within a time limit, but simply to endure the strain the run put on their body. Harry told them that there would be no sense in training their speed if they didn't have the endurance to even run five miles in a row. Knowing the magical community too well, Harry had decided to start with two miles, unwilling to overstrain his apprentices. He also made a point of always running with them and not leaving until he had completed his run as well. Nevertheless all the students were dead on their feet after their usual day.

All in all Sarah was glad having enrolled for Auror training. If actually working as one, was only half as exciting as the training, then it really was a great job. Of course, it had drawbacks, as every profession in the world. First of all it was very stressful, exhausting and probably dangerous, but that's what spices up life, right? Unfortunately one also had to deal with the bureaucrats in the Ministry. Harry had told them about the huge amount of paperwork, which usually followed an assignment and sometimes required even more time than the job itself.

Sarah believed every word of this, getting confronted with the embodiment of Ministry bureaucracy three times a week. The first time she had seen Percy Weasley supervising their training, she had believed it to be a joke, but after nearly two weeks she had realized that the Ministry was dead serious. Most of the time he wasn't doing anything than taking notes on his clipboard, which was very distracting if you were currently pursuing a suspect in the Training Room, but sometimes he would question Harry if he considered this or that appropriate for them to learn.

Harry wouldn't take the bait, but simply claim that as the Auror in charge it was his right to teach us everything he thought appropriate, as long as he wasn't infringing any laws. This usually shut Percy up and any further of his comments would be ignored. Even though Harry had never uttered a word about being irritated and angered by the supervisors presence, Sarah knew that in reality he was. His muscles would tense slightly every time Percy would say a word, something most people wouldn't recognize, but Sarah had always been very observant. Additionally Harry Potter was intriguing her.

He was one of the most emotionally guarded people she had ever encountered. It was nearly completely impossible to detect what he was feeling by simply looking at him. His emerald eyes were mirrors, but they were not mirroring his soul, but the observer's. Nevertheless he himself was very observing and incredibly good at detecting other person's emotions and intentions. Sometimes she felt as though Harry could indeed read minds. Apparently his past had required him to use every advantage which he could find. This fact had ingrained itself so deeply in his mind that he was constantly deeply analyzing his surroundings, searching for any possible edge he could have over any opponents.

Few was really known about Harry Potter's adolescence and even less about his final crusade against You-Know-Who, even though they were heaps of speculations about both topics. Sarah could only guess which string of events had caused him to become such an alert, some would even call it paranoid, person. Of course he wasn't helping to dispel all the silly rumours about himself, he rarely talked about anything concerning himself, despite the experiences he had made during his work as an Auror. During their training sessions he was very nice and it sometimes was hard to imagine him killing on a battlefield, he simply appeared to be too much a good guy.

All in all Harry Potter was an enigma to her. She knew that there was more to him than met the eyes and she wouldn't mind uncovering some of his secrets. Of course she knew that it was really unlikely that he would reveal himself to her of all people, a woman he hardly knew and who was much younger than him, but still considering it couldn't hurt, right?

Sighing Sarah stepped out of the now cold water, dried her body and her hair. She brushed her teeth and headed right to bed, where she fell asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.

- - - - -

Two days later, a meeting room in the Ministry, around three pm:

The conference room was packed with people. Sitting around a big, longish, rectangular table were the most important members of the ministerial executive: Minister Scrimgeour, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement John Wright, Senior-High-Auror Mad-Eye Moody and several other High-Aurors, including Kingsley Shacklebolt, Nymphadora Tonks and Harry Potter.

"Now that we are all gathered, we can start discussing the issue of this emergency meeting", started Scrimgeour. "Auror Tonks, please share with us the information you've gained during your last scouting mission."

"If my observations are correct, then we have no time to lose", said Tonks very solemnly. Harry furrowed his brows, knowing that something really bad must have happened, if it caused Nymphadore Tonks to get serious.

"My job was to investigate some cases of zombie-sightings by Muggles near Oxford. At first everything seemed alright, I didn't come face to face with any undeads and was nearly ready to cast a few memory charms and to depart, when I felt an unusual concentration of magical energy outside the city. I followed the energy until I reached a valley about thirty miles east. Obviously it was the source of the power. At first it appeared to be completely empty and harmless, but when I approached I realized that this was a mirage. I had to use several scrying spells to break through the image and when I finally was successful I couldn't believe my eyes."

"The whole valley was black with zombies. They seemed to be an unusual type of undeads, because they were nearly completely covered in ice crystals, as though they were wearing a kind of armour. Also we weren't wandering around aimlessly, like these mindless things usually do, but were waiting in neat lines for something. It is also strange that they didn't attack me immediately after recognizing my presence. They must have realized that someone is there after I broke through their illusion and still they didn't even react. I've got no idea what this might mean."

"Well, it doesn't really matter, does it?" said Scrimgeour. "We'll simply form a small army and wipe them out. Should be such a big problem, they are just zombies."

Harry's brows furrowed even deeper in response to the Minister's boasting. He didn't like the idea of fighting a completely unknown type of enemy and would personally take his time to prepare before rushing into action.

"Okay here's what we do", the Minister continued, creating a map of the valley with a flick of his wand, which floated directly over the conference table. "The valley only has one entrance, so we won't have to worry about any of them escaping. We will simply block the entrance and slowly advance, blasting everything in our way. I would suggest a big taskforce, due to the great mass of undeads present. Any additions?"

Harry felt a scowl forming on his face, as a result to the minister's risky combat strategy. Since the war was over, Scrimgeour, who had been a good Auror before, felt much too secure for Harry's taste and tended to be reckless. Deciding to minimise the possible loss of lives, he spoke up, introducing his preferred strategy.

"Currently they are no danger to anyone. There's only one way to leave the valley; let's just place a few guards there and prepare portkeys to reinforce them within minutes. It'll be much easier to prevent them from leaving their sanctuary then to invade it. Also we would be fighting downhill, which would give us an additional upper edge against them. This strategy will minimise the bloodshed, I think we should consider using it."

Scrimgeour's face darkened at being contradicted by Harry, while several of the other Aurors nodded approvingly. However the minister wasn't a person to take advice very kindly and usually stuck to his own ideas.

"Your plan i Auror /i would require a great amount of Ministry employees to be occupied for an unknown amount of time", said Scrimgeour angrily, a deep scowl etched in his face. "I want this issue to be dealt with quickly and with as few resources used as possible. Only a fool would waste precious manpower and money."

"And only a fool would rush into a battle he know nothing about", replied Harry, his temper getting the better of him and rising from his chair.

"SILENCE", roared Scrimgeour. "I will not be spoken to in this…."

"Gentlemen, gentlemen", interrupted Wright, anxious to ease the situation. "No reason to get angry. Harry sit i down /i ! The Minister is the head of the executive and has every right to develop strategies, which we have to carry out, no matter if we like them or not. You have voiced your concerns and many here agree with you; however we have to follow the Minister's judgement."

Harry sat down obediently, unwilling embarrass his friend by openly contradicting him and having realised that arguing was pointless in this situation.

"Outstanding", continued Scrimgeour. "This is settled then. We will strike this evening and I want every Auror available to take part in the raid. This includes retired ones and the trainees. We'll meet at the valley at precisely seven o'clock."

"The trainees aren't ready to be part of such an operation", said Harry, being completely shocked by this suggestion. "They are merely kids with a toy wand at the moment and unable to do a fully-trained Auror's job. Besides we don't know anything about our enemies and it may lead to a massacre if they are more powerful than we thought."

"Then you should make sure that they are prepared until tonight", replied the minister, a satisfied smirk on his face. "The apprentices will be fighting as well, Potter, or your days being an Auror are over. I won't tolerate any contradiction from you, have I made myself clear?"

White hot anger cursed through Harry. He found his suspicions that Scrimgeour was regarding him as rival for power confirmed by this order and was sure that the minister was putting his students in danger only to damage him. It truly was a cheap shot, but Harry was in no position to do anything against it. The day was getting worse, then he ever though it would be.

"As glass, sir", said Harry, having caught a warning glance from Wright, before responding.

- - - - -

Sarah was more than startled to find a livid Harry Potter banging into the auditorium, in which they were currently lectured about the rules they had to follow while being an Auror. It was extremely dull, but gave them the much needed time to relax from the strain the regular training put on them. It was more than unusual for a fully-trained Auror to enter this room, normally they tried to get as far away from it and the bureaucracy it symbolized, especially if he was literally knocking down the doors in the process.

"Auror Potter", said their lector, Professor Hector, his irritation about getting his lesson interrupted clearly evident in his voice. "Is there a problem?"

"A problem?" replied Harry angrily. "Yes there's a problem, indeed! I want every apprentice in my office in precisely five minutes. This lesson is over, it's pointless anyway."

With these words he stomped out of the lecture hall, leaving behind a mass of surprised student and a scandalized professor Hector, who couldn't believe that his enormously important lesson had been interrupted and cancelled.

- - - - -

Precisely five minutes later all of the students had gathered in Harry's office, only to find their mentor rummaging through some big, wooden crates in one corner of the room, muttering under his breath throughout the process. He didn't realize that they had entered the room and due to his obvious foul mood neither of the students was eager to introduce them. After a few, very long minutes, Booker broke the silence.

"Er, Sir, why exactly are we meeting here?"  
Harry turned slowly, obviously having only just realized that there were other people in the room as well. He was holding a silver amulet in one of his hands.

"You're here because our minister of magic, is a bloody, stubborn idiot", he replied, his eyes burning with anger, and started to explain them there current situation.

Five minutes later he was finished and the information had begun to sink in.

"Well, I'm ready to finish off a few undead", said Sean, as usual completely convinced of his own abilities.

"No, you are NOT", replied Harry, slamming his fist on his desk. "All of you are mere kids, no Aurors. You really think that you are ready after two weeks of training to do the work of a fully trained Auror, who has spent years training? It's like sending first-year Hogwart's pupils against a group of Death Eaters. Bloody hell, you may DIE this evening do you realize this?"

Complete silence followed Harry's outburst and he was the first to break the silence afterwards, snapping back to business mode.

"Okay, obviously you're not afraid, but don't get reckless. There is no point in getting oneself killed. We've barely got four hours to get you prepared and we should use the time. Our enemies are zombies, so I would advise to use fire charms, to burn them away. The fact that they are covered in ice shouldn't help them against this. We'll practice the charm again today."

"Also you'll be wearing this", he continued, holding up the silver amulet. "It'll help me to know your current position and situation, so I can help you if you're in trouble. No one of my students will die today."

Four hours of training later, the students put on their charmed amulets and apparated to their final destination, feeling somewhere between excited and scared out of their wits.

- - - - -

Harry surveyed the group of Aurors gathering around the canyon. The crevice was only about one hundred feet wide and would never allow the nearly one thousand Aurors to enter it at the same time, while still granting them enough space to fight efficiently. Therefore the number of Aurors entering the canyon was limited to two hundred. The rest would take position at the edge of it, supporting them by shooting long range spells in the withering mass of undeads. Harry wanted his students to be part of the support team, but Scrimgeour himself had assigned them to the attack squad fuelling Harry's temper even more.

Currently a group of illusionists were dispelling the mirage cloaking the valley and as soon as they had finished the assault would start. Harry gaze travelled over the faces of his Auror colleagues, noticing looks of nervous anticipation, determination and fear on most of them. He smiled at them encouragingly, partly because he wanted to raise the morals and partly because he himself wasn't afraid. Truth be told, he wasn't keen to fight against an unknown enemy and a part of him was currently screaming at him to get the hell back home and to leave Scrimgeour stewing in this mess. Nevertheless he had no intentions of leaving the battleground.

It had happened as soon as he had arrived at the canyon. An old feeling had resurfaced. Not just any old feeling. The feeling. That strange familiar feeling of everything being suddenly clear and simple. Not having to worry about politics, ethics, intrigues, feelings or loyalties but simply having to fight your way through a mass of ruthless enemies, which was a close as one could get to absolute freedom. Battle was beaconing him and he had no choice than to answer.

The last time he had had the feeling in this intensity was during the night he killed Voldemort and he wasn't sure if this was a good or a bad sign. As soon as he had taken one breath after arriving, he knew that this would be a glorious fight. The air carrying the rotten stench of decaying flesh, carried for Harry a promise. The promise of the adrenaline rush while smashing ones way through a multitude of foes. The satisfying crash of an enemy skull bursting, the soft thud of a dead enemy hitting the ground, the incredible feeling of triumph after having finished a worthy opponent. Every feeling a warrior could experience during a battle was promised to him by the evening breeze and it was reigniting his old lust for battle.

Harry knew that he tended to stop thinking during combat and to rely on his instinct, which marked him as an excellent fighter. Instinct is faster than thought and only a great warrior could completely rely on his instinct and still leave the battleground alive. Ironically many mediocre soldiers, who relied on their minds only, lived longer than more skilled ones, who made the mistake of getting reckless during battle or relied on their insufficient trained instinct.

Even though his battle hunger was awakened a small voice in his head reminded him of all the reasons he shouldn't be here. In the past he had fought not only for his life, but also for the promise of a better life, a fulfilled life, waiting for him in the future if only he could stay alive to experience it. This possibility kept him going through every hardship he had to endure during his crusade against Voldemort and whenever he was growing tired of fighting he would think about everything he would do after his quest was over.

He had achieved this goal and why should he put his better life into jeopardy by fighting a battle for a minister he never liked on terms dictate to him, instead on his own? Shouldn't he rather be at home, spending the evening with Ginny? Wasn't it his duty as a husband to stay out of danger? Shouldn't he throw his old life out the window and concentrate on his new one?

Well, he should, but not today. The promise of a heated battle was too strong and sometimes Harry thought that you had to face death to truly feel alive, because only then you would fully appreciate the wonders of life. So Harry pushed all thoughts about why he shouldn't participate in the battle and about the scolding Ginny would give him as soon as he got home (he had only wrote he a note saying that he would have to work late today, but spared the details) away and eagerly awaited the start of the fray.

After about fifteen minutes, Scrimgeour finally ordered the Aurors to advance, while taking his place in the ranks of the support team. Harry entered the valley with a smiled etched into his face, hoping that he could prevent any life loss on his side.

- - - - -

Tonks ducked barely in time to dodge the wicked zombie claw, which had been aimed at her head. "Damn, these things are fast", she thought as turned the undead in a macabre torch with a flick of her wand. The acrid smell of burning flesh filled the air and the zombie fell to ground, getting dissolved quickly by the magical flames. Yet Tonks didn't have the time to enjoy the victory, due to the three other bothersome undead which attacked her as soon as they had seen their comrade falling.

Showing an unusual amount of intelligence, her three new foes launched a coordinated assault on her, one attack from left, one from right and one head-on. She took a step back to avoid on pair of claws and kicked at the legs of her next attacker, shattering it and tripping the zombie. However she couldn't block the last aggressor and was in unable to dodge, have just attacked herself. She watched a three fingered, ice covered and very sharp looking claw flying towards her, aimed directly at her heart. Desperately she brought her hands up, trying to deflect the strike, but she knew that she would be no match for the sheer physical strength these creatures harboured.

Just as she had embraced the thought of dieing today, being completely petrified by the wicked creature in front of her a blinding flash solved her problem. Her attacker vanished into nothingness, its claw only an inch from her torso. His two cronies, who wanted to use the advantage they had over Tonks, burned to ashes in the same moment, granting her a few moments to recover.

"Hey Tonks", said Harry as he appeared next to her, "Don't even think about dieing before our job here is finished. We need your help here. And cover your flanks; you tend to leave them unprotected."

With these words he jumped into the melee again, not hearing her mumble: "I'm too busy to die anyway."

- - - - -

"It's just a jump to the left and a step to the right.", thought Harry, smiling, as he simultaneously incinerated one zombie, ripped on into tiniest bits with an over charged Reductor Course and used the Starfire Charm to vaporize an another group of five foes. It was almost too easy to best these enemies although they were very intelligent and cunning for being the low developed undead they were.

"Come on, is this really all you can do?" he taunted, shattering a zombies ribcage with a well-aimed snap kick before torching the wretched thing. Blimey, he had missed this! More and more adrenaline entered his bloodstream as he moved through the thick ranks of undeads, twirling his wand in a dance of death, which left only charred flesh heaps behind. He was started to feel slightly dizzy, but this didn't tarnish the feeling of euphoria, which had taken hold of him as soon as the first spell was fired. For a brief moment a single thought blazed through his head: "I'm right back where I belong!", but he quickly pushed it aside and focused again on the battle at hand. He trusted in his abilities and knew that no zombie would be a real threat to him. Congratulating himself for every minute he had spent training during the last years, he summoned an aura of white-hot flames, which surrounded him, but was harmless to him and ran directly into the largest concentration of undead he saw, grinning like a madman.

- - - - -

Tonks was mesmerized by Harry's way of fighting. Even though he seemed to be completely intoxicated by the battle, he was always in complete control of the situation. She had seen him fighting off six zombies at once, without hesitating and without even taking a scratch. He was displaying a usual natural ability to cast elemental magic, his fire spells were wreaking havoc in the enemy's ranks and Tonks knew how hard to control these spells were. Heck, he had run into a group of at least twenty zombies, protect by only an inch of magical fire and his enemies had been vaporised as soon as they even brushed it!

Watching Harry was somewhere between fascinating, awe-inspiring and downright scary. Tonks was sure that he was only using a small part of his energy in this battle and judging by the untiring way he moved he still had lots of power kept in reserve. He was the only one that prevented the zombies from simply crushing them with their superior numbers. The other Aurors were tiring quickly and had by no means the powers to annihilate such large numbers of foes in such a short time. Truth be told, the battle was going badly. More and more they had to retreat and more and more Aurors were savagely injured and had to be removed from combat by the battle-healers they had brought. So far no one had been killed, but sooner or later their time would run out and for every foe they slay, two seemed to appear.

Yet Tonks currently wasn't worrying about the battle, but about what would happen if Harry got killed. The moral of the other fighters would crumble and the battle would be lost immediately. It was highly unlikely that this would happen, but Tonks vowed to keep an eye on the overeager fighter, to be able to help him if he needed her. After all she owed her life to him!

Suddenly a very troubling thought flashed through her brain: What would happen if Harry got too carried away by the combat? Judging by the grin etched into his face he was rather enjoying himself. Knowing the bloodlust caused by a heated battle herself, Tonks knew that this could lead to a very dangerous situation. She had read about fighters suddenly attacking their allies because they had lost the ability to distinguish between friend and foe during the combat or were too eager to fight to care.

Shuddering she vowed to also keep a stunner ready and re-entered combat, making a mental note to be ill the next time Scrimgeour started a stupid battle.

- - - - -

No one of the combatants clashing below realized that they were watched. A small and narrow cave was located at one of the canyon walls, being cloaked in complete darkness. However an even darker creature lurked in the gloom, a creature so dark that the velvety blackness around it seemed merely dark grey. The shadowy version of a tall, lean man with only white slits as eyes, was standing solemnly in the small alcove and watched the spectacle below.

This was Sandro, Sandro the shade assassin, now nearing his three hundred fortieth year in business and one of the most successful in his profession. And he was enjoying himself greatly.

"Absolutely superb show Harry", thought the assassin. "I never knew you were such a pyromaniac. Today you are an even more formidable fighter than five years ago and I'm really glad that I don't have to fight you. Even an assassin values life very highly, perhaps even more than other people do, because he knows how fleeting it can be. Nevertheless I really should have brought some popcorn, bless those Muggles for this invention. This battle is highly entertaining and the odds are high that it will get even bloodier and more entertaining. Nothing can make your day as a vicious and savage battle."

Smiling in anticipation, the assassin broke out of his reverie and refocused his attention on the grand melee below.

- - - - -

Booker knew that this fight would end in disaster as soon as he had stepped onto the battleground. At first they had encountered little resistance and had been able to advance quickly, but suddenly a vast amount of foes had apparently out of thin air, overwhelming them like a raging torrent of rotten flesh and wicked claws. This wasn't the glorious victory Scrimgeour had promised, this was suicide.

He had been fighting non-stop since they had started the assault and he was growing more and more tired every minute. Using the magical torch spell Harry had taught them he had been able to keep the undead at bay, and to incinerate his fair share of them. However the spell wasn't to be cast continuously for a long time and was currently was draining Bookers energy rapidly. He was breathing heavily as he torched yet another foe. The air was burning in his lungs, his vision was getting more and more blurred and his sides were stitching from exhaustion. He didn't know how long he could keep fighting before passing out.

In his dazed state he didn't realize that the wizard protecting his right flank had been cut down by two zombies, who were just closing in on him.

- - - - -

Harry's silver amulet was growing hot, just as he cast a Reductor Curse at one of his foes, turning the undead in a heap of shattered ice and broken bones. The shock kicked him out of his euphoria and sobered him quickly. One of his apprentices was in danger; he had to rescue him or her quickly. One of his hands grabbed the amulet and he muttered an incantation, which transformed it into a portkey. Suddenly he felt the familiar sensation of getting pulled into the air by a hook behind his navel and almost instantly hit the ground next to Booker Kane, who was currently lying on the floor, clutching his right arm which was sporting a series of deep, heavily bleeding cuts. Two zombies were standing around him and one of them was just raising his claw to finish Booker off, who seemed to have lost his wand at some time during the struggle. However the undead never got the chance to strike.

With a lazy flick of his wand Harry turned his two foes into living torches and summoned a wall of fire to close the leaks in the defence which had been created due to Booker's inability to fight. Sighing he bent down to examine the apprentice wounds, who didn't give an indication that he had recognized or even seen Harry. His eyes were glassy and he was shivering violently.

"He's probably in shock", muttered Harry to himself, taking another look at the wounds. They already seemed to be inflamed; apparently the cut of a zombie claw was toxic as well. Booker wouldn't be able to continue fighting. Silently cursing Scrimgeour, Harry flicked his wand, causing a white fist to appear in the sky. This would alert one of the healers, who were part of the support team. He or she would arrive quickly and take care of Booker. Even though the apprentice didn't seem to be in grave danger, Harry hoped that the healer would hurry, so he could continue fighting without having to worry about his injured comrade.

While waiting for the healer, Harry examined the battle field. He hadn't realized before that their situation was that bad, due to the adrenalin flush he had been in. All around him the zombies were pressing on, while the exhausted Aurors had to retreat. The ground was stained with blood, which wasn't a good sign because the zombies lacked all body fluids. Harry realized that this battle would be lost, if they continued fighting this way. One undead wasn't a match for an Auror, but an Auror wasn't a match for twenty undead either. Somehow he had to balance these odds, killing them the normal way would take too long.

Racking his brain for a way to prevent the upcoming doom, Harry was startled by a sudden crack behind him. He turned round to see a female healer taking care of Booker's wounds and placing him on a stretcher. In this instant a golden glimmer caught his eye. The healer was wearing the Order of The Healing Flame, a golden amulet engraved with a white and red fireball, often given to very gifted healers. The fireball is a symbol of the healers, who burn away death and disease just as fire burns away wood. However it was the symbolism which got Harry's attention, but the fireball on the amulet. Suddenly he knew what he must do, even though it would leave him drained. He Apparated next to Tonks to set his plan into motion.

- - - - -

"Tonks", shouted Harry as soon as he appeared next to her. "I can end this battle, but I need time to gather the power. Protect me for a few minutes and we can get out of here alive."

"At least someone has got an emergency plan", she replied, blasting a zombie during the process. "Get going then, I'll organize your protection. ALL PROTECT HARRY HE'S OUR LAST HOPE TO GET OUT OF HERE ALIVE!"

The fighters in close proximity started to form a protective ring around Harry, but he was already starting to gather his energy. His plan was simple, but effective. He wanted to use an old elemental spell, which created a guidable fireball and would channel as much of his power as possible into it. With a bit of luck this would be enough to kill most of the enemies. Of course there was the danger of losing control over the spell, which would result in the immediate explosion of the fireball, but Harry couldn't think of any other way to save his Auror colleagues.

Raising his hand to the sky, he mumbled the ancient incantation. Immediately a small flame appeared between his hands and he started to pour energy into it. The ball started to grow, but unfortunately the undead realized that he was drawing power to harm them and started a furious charge at him. The crashed hard into the Auror's ranks, their wicked claws seeding injury and death. For a moment Harry thought that they would break through, but their advance stopped only three feet away from him. He doubled his efforts to charge the spell, knowing that no matter how fiercely they fought Tonks and her fellow Aurors would lose this fight. The zombies were simply too numerous.

The next few minutes were one of the longest in Harry's life. He tuned out everything in his surroundings, having to concentrate on keeping control of the spell. Still he knew that every second people were dieing around him and that he was completely vulnerable at the moment. It would really be ironic, having defeated Voldemort only to be cut down by a stinking zombie. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he had channelled all energy he could spare into the spell, keeping enough to continue fighting afterwards.

"Here we go!", he shouted, as he launched the now white-hot and thirty feet wide ball.

- - - - -

The fireball wrecked havoc in the ranks of undead, never actually hitting the ground, but only coming close enough to incinerate everything near it. Harry kept it well away from any allies, but instead concentrated on the zombies, which were still waiting to join combat. The acrid spell of burning flesh was getting overwhelming as large numbers of foes disintegrated to the intense heat. Harry let the fireball dance through the enemies as long as possible, but it was losing energy very quickly. After only half a minute, Harry directed it into a large group of foes, the resulting explosion, blinding everyone on the battleground and shaking the earth. Most of the zombies were terminated, but the remaining would still provide a tough fight. But instead of charging immediately after the attack, as Harry had expected, the zombies retreated.

They seemed to form a certain formation, as they took place at the canyon walls, completely ignoring the humans around them. Just as Harry wondered whether he should take advance of this strange behaviour, black smoke appeared in the middle of the canyon only ten feet away form him. Every second it thickened, slowly forming a humanoid form. Suddenly it disappeared, revealing the creature it had hidden. It was an ice-covered skeleton!

The new undead advanced slowly on Harry, an aura of power surrounding it. A layer of ice with varying thickness covered its whole body. The ice crystals on his head looked like spiky hair and a black cloak was the only clothing it wore. The eyes of the creature, which seemed to be male judging by the broad shoulders, were two almond shaped ice crystals reflecting its intelligence.

Within seconds it had reached Harry, the other Aurors back off, cowed by the creature's power. It locked eyes with Harry and studied him for a long time, searching for something. Harry kept his face impassive and his mind blank, knowing that he could not win this encounter in his weakened state and unwilling to give this away. Suddenly the creature made a complicated sign with his right hand and Harry found himself repeating the sign on instinct. The creature's face drew into the parody of a frown and it spoke a single sentence in a cold and clam voice:

"You're not Tourach."


	4. Tourach

"What?" asked Harry, completely dumb smacked. He had no idea who or what this creature was or why it was talking to him. That he had been able to repeat the sign the creature made only increased his confusion.

"You are not Tourach." replied it, very slowly as though talking to a child. "But the question is what does that mean?"

"I've got absolutely no idea what you are talking about." replied Harry, slowly getting irritated by the creature's way of talking. "I really don't have the time to solve strange riddles, so just tell me who you are and what do you want from me."

"Very well, my name is Crosis and I came to here to meet a certain person, who hasn't shown up. However you are much too strong to be an ordinary human and you greeted me in the correct way. No one could have known this sign except for Tourach, me and two others, but you definitely are not him. You look different and you can't remember me, yet your aura feels slightly similar… I think this question should be answered with the others."

With these words the creature raised its arms and a pillar of light appeared around him, reaching high into the sky and apparently beaconing something or someone.

"Who are you calling?" asked Harry angrily. "Why did you create this legion of undeads and what the hell do you want? And what are you?"

"Patience, we'll talk about this soon enough.", replied the skeletal mage. "What was your name again?"

"I'm Harry Potter and would be more than happy if you could get a move on, my time isn't unlimited you know."

"How very witty. Trust me, I'm not happy with this situation either. Everything could be so easy, but no, now I'm in a situation I don't understand and have got no idea how to get the contest starting again."

Just as Harry was getting ready to explode, terribly annoyed by the creature's way of speaking in riddles and that it seemed to have arranged this massacre without a good reason, two other creatures appeared. One was a stunningly beautiful woman with snow-white skin, blood-red lips, long golden hair and matching eyes. Despite her beauty she appeared cold and foreboding and Harry made a mental note to keep an eye on her, knowing that she would be at least as dangerous as Crosis was.

The other creature was a huge humanoid, whose body was divided into two halves. One was made completely out of plants, while the other was made of magma. It had a brutal looking face in which two jet-black eyes were gleaming with the lust for battle. The brute was leering at Crosis and the woman with a look of absolute loathing plastered on his face and Harry wouldn't be surprised if it lashed out at them any moment.

"May I introduce you?" asked Crosis rhetorically. "The golden haired woman is Shai and the brute over there is Anhur. The young man with the messy black hair and the green eyes is Harry Potter."

Anhur didn't react at all to Crosis introduction, except that the scowl on his face deepened even further, while Shai studied Harry curiously.

"That's all very interesting Crosis." she said, in a voice as sharp and cold as a crystalline bell. "But I thought you wanted to call us when you've found Tourach and I can't see him anywhere around here."

"That's exactly why I called you." replied the skeleton. "I need you help with this situation, even though Anhur won't be a great help."

"Watch your tongue bonehead or I'll rip you apart limb for limb." growled Anhur. "Get a move on, I'm really looking forward to some action and after four thousand years I'm eager to finish what we started."

"As if i _you_ /i were a match for me Anhur. You are just a thug with an abundance of muscles and not enough brain to fill an eggcup. Also I'm the lord of death and you are merely a little nuisance I'll have to quash."

"Oh yeah? Well let's see how well you can think with a cracked skull, oh lord of death." replied Anhur and swung a quick blow at Crosis head. The skeleton mage summoned a wall of ice, which absorbed the blow but was shattered into a billion pieces by Anhur's force. Crosis answered by shooting a small, blue-black ball at Anhur, which flew so fast that it was nearly impossible to see let alone to dodge. A split second before it collided with the brute's face an extremely bright flash blinded everyone around.

For a few moments Harry saw nothing, his vision completely obscured by the white bolt. He could hear screaming around him and caught bits of a heated discussion between the three strange creatures. After a few minutes he regained his ability to see and observed the current situation. Crosis and Anhur were both trapped in large crystals, their bodies completely immobilized by these translucent prisons. Only their heads weren't cover in crystal and therefore still able to move and talk. Currently they were shouting insults at Shai, who seemed to be responsible for their imprisonment. Suddenly Harry spotted a crystal mirror hovering in the air directly in front of Anhur's head. Bewildered he searched for anything explaining the item's function. Then he realized that a part of the canyon twenty feet left from Crosis had collapsed, burying a few zombies in the process. Apparently the mirror had reflected Crosis energy ball and caused it to destroy the canyon wall. Harry shuddered as he imagined what this ball would have done to Anhur or any other living creature.

"After this childish dispute is settled we can now return to the matter at hand." said Shai evenly. "What do you have to say Crosis and don't you dare speaking in riddles or you will never leave this crystal again."

"Once again I am amazed by your manners and graciousness, oh kind lady." the skeleton replied silkily.

"I don't think he has learned his lesson yet Shai." interrupted the brute called Anhur. "Release me and I will teach him his place – at the bottom!"

"As if you with your pea-sized brain could defeat me." said Crosis laughing. "I always was the strongest of us three and this whole contest is only formal anyway. It's clear that I'll be the winner."

"Sure Crosis and that's why you are currently trapped in one of me crystals completely at my mercy. You should watch your rotten tongue or you'll feel the full amount of my wrath."

For the first time during this encounter Shai looked really angry and Harry wondered what kind of havoc the woman could wreck at the two others and at the world at general.

Just as Crosis opened his mouth to reply, Anhur joined the discussion proclaiming him at the strongest of them and the strongest being in the universe. Shai and Crosis didn't take this boast too kindly and within seconds a full-blown argument had erupted. Harry watched in disbelief as the three powerful creatures shouted at each other, often underlining their points with spells. The situation was so weird that he wondered if this was all a very strange dream.

The longer the argument lasted, the more Harry became convinced that he was indeed dreaming. This would explain Scrimgeour's incredibly stupid battle plans and his childish defiance and resentment against Harry. It would explain the existence of the ice-covered zombies, which were much too cunning undeads to be part of the real world. And last but not least it would explain the encounter with the three strange, powerful creatures, which seemed to suffer from over stiff egos. It didn't explain what they wanted from him, but Harry guessed that they wanted to tell him to wake up and go to work.

However, like so often in life, having answered this question created a new one. Now Harry knew how that this situation was merely a dream (or so he believed), but this caused him to think about why he was dreaming this bizarre dream. Was he ill and the fever caused his mind to create this rubbish? But if this was the case how had he become ill? It was late summer after all and he couldn't remember any situation during the past weeks which could possible lead to a cold, quite the contrary. It had been very hot during the last weeks, which had caused him to lessen the oppressive heat by taking cold showers together with Ginny. So Harry discarded this possibility and just as he started to consider that someone had built and activated the improbability drive mentioned in _The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy_ his belief of this being a dream was violently shattered.

Apparently the argument between the three creatures had evolved into a full blown skirmish. One of Crosis' Death Balls crashed into a canyon wall only six feet left from Harry and the explosion knocked him to the ground. Sharp stone shrapnels embedded themselves into his back and the burning pain caused Harry to finally discard the this-is-only-a-dream theory. Gingerly he stood up, grimacing as a new wave of pain assaulted his brain in response to the movement. Muttering a simple but dead useful spell, Harry removed the stone splinters in his back. Then he cast a healing spell Ginny had taught him to stop the bleeding and to close the wounds. Fortunately the injuries were only superficial thanks to the Auror robe he was wearing. It was enchanted to absorb blows and magical energy alike. After the healing spell had kicked into effect he was as good as new, but still had to deal with the slight problem of three crazy and much too powerful magical beings.

Looking around he realized that the other Aurors had not moved an inch since Crosis appeared. The sight of the three foes battling seemed to have rooted them to the spot. Harry was getting seriously annoyed know. What the hell wanted these creatures from him? It couldn't be this important or they would be talking with him right now. Deciding to put an end to this encounter or at least to get it moving again, Harry called out.

"Hey, do you still need me or can I go? I'm rather busy, you know."

His statement caused the battle to halt. Crosis, who was just in the process of firing several three feet wide icicles at Anhur, aborted his attack. Shai dispelled the ten flying balls of light, which had attacked the other two with bolts of lighting and floated back to the ground, having flown throughout the skirmish. Only the impulsive Anhur didn't stop fighting. He launched a magma jet at Crosis, while spraying Shai with one foot long thorns. However he was no matched for the others combined power. Within seconds he was once again enclosed in a shining crystal, unable to fight any further. No one of the three creatures seemed to be injured or exhausted by their clash, which was astounding due to the high amount of energy they put into their attacks.

"No." said Crosis, now once again facing Harry. "We still need you. The others may go, this battle was only arranged to get i _you_ /i here anyway."

"Only to get me here?" asked Harry, after the statement had sunk in. "But why would you…"

"Yeah Crosis." interrupted Shai. "Why making such a big effort only to get an ordinary human here? I though you were looking for Tourach."

Harry felt slightly insulted by her, after all he was everything but ordinary and being a human really wasn't so bad.

The features of the skeleton twisted into a grimaced, which distantly resembled a cocky smile.

"And this is exactly why we are here Shai. I have reasons to believe that this _ordinary human _is a descendant of Tourach."

"A descendent from who?" asked Harry, but was interrupted by Shai.

"This is it?" she asked angrily. "You called us to reveal the incredibly small possibility that this human is a child of Tourach?"

"Basically what's why I called you." the skeleton replied calmly.

"Crosis I'm not in the mood for any mind games today, so get to the point." warned the crystal maiden. "Tell us the reasons for your assumption and what this might mean."

"You wish is my command fair lady." responded Crosis, bowing ridiculously low to emphasize his obedience. "According to our plan I built up a small army of ice zombies to lure Tourach out of his hiding place and stored them in this canyon. I placed a few baiting charms on the area and covered the whole thing with a weak illusion to make it appear authentic. Well after a few days this bunch of hooligans showed up (he pointed at the Aurors with one of his bony hands) and attacked my troops. They got their ass kicked at first but then this young man called Harry unleashed a gigantic fireball and incinerated most of my little army. Normally a human being shouldn't be able to channel this huge amount of energy so I decided to show myself and have a look at him. Surprisingly he replied my greeting correctly me with the Tash-De, which he under normal circumstances he couldn't know!"

Harry's temper flared during the skeleton's speech. So the whole battle had only been a scheme arranged to lure this Tourach out of his sanctuary and Crosis was giving a damn about the people who had become hurt or even died during this arranged melee! Memories of the battle flooded Harry's mind and fuelled his rage. He remembered an ice-covered claw flying at Tonk's surprised face. He remembered Booker lying on the floor in a bloody mess, cradling his injured arm. And he remembered how exhausting it had been to create the fireball which had ended the battle and how dangerous it had been. All the memories blended into a blur of claws, blood and fire and for a moment Harry was close to attacking the three creatures even though it would have been his certain demise. With an enormous effort he fought down his battle lust and continued listening to Crosis, Anhur and Shai, hoping to find out why this Tourach was so important to them and what they wanted from him.

"What exactly are you implying Crosis?" growled Anhur. "Even if he is a descendent of Tourach why should he be of interest for us? Tourach is free to shag as many girls as he wants to and we shouldn't bother ourselves with the results of this but with finding him."

"Ah once again you're missing a point, oh heartless savage." replied Crosis smoothly. "I've found out that the aura we felt after our awakening was no other's than Harry's and not Tourach's. This leads to the assumption that Tourach is either gone or dead."

Stunned silence followed his words. His head had started swimming during the conversation. He being the son of a friend of these three creatures? No way! And ever if he were, what exactly would this mean? Apparently it seemed very important to them. Finally Shai broke the silence, her angry voice ringing throughout the canyon.

"That's completely impossible Crosis and you know that. Tourach is at least as strong as we are, if not stronger and we are still alive. This means that he couldn't have died of old age and I doubt very much that someone who lives or lived on this planet would have been able to kill him. After all he absorbed his fair share of the energy didn't he? And why on earth would he be hiding and what for? He knows that we need him to finish the contest and that without him only pointless bloodshed will erupt. He always had a soft spot for the people not involved in out struggle, so why should he consciously endanger them?"

"Ah, Shai, once again your mind is as sharp as one of your beloved crystals." replied Crosis, once again doing his mocking bow. Harry could see Shai clenching her hands and he wondered how much longer she would ignore the skeleton's provocations. "However you are forgetting that we were trapped in different planes and in another plane time may move slower or faster. This means that probably only a century passed for us, while more then four thousand years passed here. We don't know anything about the way Tourach trapped us, but somehow he had to keep us unable to escape. My guess is that he sent us to some pocket planes, these are planes within planes, and kept us only remotely attached to the original plane. This way the remained on the earth, but were affected by the plane we were trapped upon. These planes seemed to have a special field, which prevented us from moving, channelling power and even from thinking, because I don't have any memories of my imprisonment."

"So while we were comfortable and safe in out pocket planes, Tourach remained on the earth having to face all the dangers on it, especially time. We don't know what happened to him, but I guess that old age finally claimed him. However after more than four thousand years, the magic holding us imprisoned wore off and once again we are wandering the earth. We have changed, mind you, I wasn't that thin before I got imprisoned, but our purpose still is the same. We've got to settle this conquest once for all."

"Even if you are right, which I doubt very much, how will we be able to do this without Tourach's guidance?" asked Shai. "You know that he is the only one being able to declare a winner and to regulate the battle. Without him we are lost."

"Of course I am right." continued Crosis, obviously quite please with himself. "But if you still have doubts, I will be more than happy to dispel them. Let's assume that Tourach is alive at the moment, why hasn't he shown himself, not even to you Shai? And why are we unable to feel him, even though he is so powerful that it should be very difficult to mask his aura?"

"I'll warn you only once Crosis." snarled the crystal maiden. "Don't mention Tourach's and my relationship again or I'll personally make sure that your death is as painful as possible."

The two creature's eyes locked, ice crystal meeting eerily golden orbs. For several minutes they glowered at each other and Harry strongly suspected that a mental battle was going on. Finally Crosis averted his eyes, settling instead on Anhur, who was looking bored, as though the whole situation wasn't his concern.

"What do you think Anhur, is Tourach alive or not?" asked Crosis, apparently fishing for more support in this issue.

"Doesn't really matter, does it?" replied the brute in his deep, rumbling voice, which always sounded like a growl. "All we know is that he isn't here and that we have to deal with this matter on our own. And we should do this fast, because I'm sick of waiting."

"All right then Crosis." interrupted Shai, in a completely clam voice. If she really had won a mental battle against Crosis, Harry should never know, but even if she had, she wasn't showing it. "You wouldn't have told us this, if you hadn't already found a possible solution. You're way too arrogant to admit that you don't have a clue."

"Ah once again you are right, fair lady." replied Crosis, his face once again twisted in his parody of a smile. "Well if I was Tourach and knew that I would die long before we would return, then I would try to preserve the knowledge and the power needed to finish the contest somewhere. As we all know Tourach was fascinated how magic is inherited from the parents to the children and spent lots of time researching this. My guess is that he somehow stored the required power and knowledge in him, so it would pass on to his children and to their children and so on. So the only thing he had to do was to get enough girls laid to ensure the survival of his bloodline. And if I'm not very much mistake Harry over there is his only surviving heir."

A deafening silence followed his explanation. Harry opened his mouth to say something, but couldn't think of anything. He closed it again and decided to wait for further details. Personally he thought Crosis' theory absurd, he surely would know if had any genetic memory about these three creatures and their conflict wouldn't he? All right so he had greeted the skeleton with this strange movement, but this simply was intuition right? He had memorized Crosis' greeting instinctively and had simply copied it, hadn't he? Even to himself his train of thought sounded oddly like lying to himself, but until now he had no reason to truly believe the skeleton.

Finally Shai spoke up again, her voice totally void of emotions.

"Well Crosis this sounds exactly like the crazy thing Tourach would do if he really had to die. Personally I still believe that he is alive, but it seems like we have to settle the score without him. How exactly is this Harry going to help us?"

"Simply, he will take over Tourach's part as the arbiter and organizer of the contest." replied the skeleton. "In my opinion we should restart as soon as possible, we have wasted enough time during our imprisonment."

"Excellent." interrupted Anhur. "That's settled then, you two should prepare yourself for losing. When do we start?"

Just as Crosis opened his mouth to reply, Harry decided that it would be prudent to take a more active role in this discussion; after all they were talking about him and he didn't have a clue what they wanted from him. He had no intentions of getting entangled in some stupid old vendetta between three totally insane entities.

"Hang on, I've got on idea what you are talking about and as far as I know I don't have any specific memories or powers connected to you. I really don't want to be part of any conflict between the three of you and you really should explain what's going on, unless you want me to leave."

"So be it." replied Crosis, not hesitating for a second. "I shall explain everything to you and I'm pretty sure that this will trigger some memories in you. Anhur, Shai, Tourach and I were Egyptian wizards nearly four thousand years ago. As you may know a high developed magical society existed in Egypt at that time. All us there high priests of different gods and our job was to develop spells which helped us in our daily live and curses to protect the pyramids from intruders."

"Once a month we met in a cave in the desert, ten miles east of Thebes, to meditate together and to combine our powers to reach higher levels of sorcery. Then on one of these meetings during the last hours of the day, we felt a strange magical aura appearing about half a mile east. Naturally we decided to check what kind of magical being or item radiated such a halo, which was very strong mind you. So we quickly walked to the location, leaving our water flasks and the rest of our gear behind, because the temperature had cooled off very much and found a glowing crystal buried in the sand. It consisted of three peaks, which joined in a flat circle. One peak glowed red and green, one blue and black and one was white. All the colours mixed where the peaks touched, giving the rest of the crystal an indefinable colour. The magic in the crystal beaconed us to touch it and naturally so we did."

The skeletal paused here for a moment, clearly because it enjoyed the attention and wanted to maximize the dramatic effect of the story. Harry didn't like the direction this was going a bit, he had learned about the dangerous effect a promise of power could have on person and he already suspected what the end of the story would be. So far Crosis' story hadn't triggered any buried memories in Harry, except for a building headache and he took heart in this, thinking his hopes that he wasn't involved in this confirmed.

"Well, I touched the blue-black peak, Anhur the red-green one and Shai the white one." continued Crosis. "Tourach, having stood too far away to get hold of one of the peaks, touched the place where they joined. Suddenly a blinding explosion occurred and we were knocked unconsciousness."

"At the time we regained consciousness the night had passed and it was midday of the next day. We had spent a night and half of a day unprotected in the desert without water and were nearly dehydrated as we woke up. Already a few vultures were circling above us, eager for a good meal. We discovered that the crystal had vanished, leaving no trace of his existence behind and no signs of the explosion could be found. Believing it all having been a hallucination, we returned to our cave and to Thebes, not knowing that our lives had been changed for good."

"At first we thought nothing had really changed, but after a few months we discovered that we had developed new abilities. Shai was suddenly able to create and to modify crystals; Anhur gained control over plants and fire, while I mastered necromancy and could turn water to ice. Tourach, however, gained all of our abilities, though in a weakened form. All of us stopped ageing, healed faster than we should and slowly gained the gift of levitation."

"Of course our new powers didn't go unnoticed. We grew more and more respected and influential. We gained followers and soon we were worshipped instead of the gods we originally represented. Our characters started to change too, growing more conform to the aspect we represented. Anhur grew impulsive, Shai became controlling and ruthless. She believed in a perfect order and everyone who disturbed it had to be severely punished. Tourach became extremely level minded and started to strive for a so-called 'natural balance'. Some people claim that I grew more arrogant, thirsting for knowledge and cruel, but I know that this is rubbish."

Crosis pointedly ignore Shai snorts following this statement, clearly believing what he was saying. The skeleton seemed to enjoy his role as a story teller tremendously, because it took an overly long breath, which was a very strange thing to do due to him being undead, to make sure that everyone's attention was focused on him. Then he continued.

"After a time, conflicts started to brew. I can't remember who started the war, but suddenly our followers were fighting each other and we were fighting each other as well! A civil war erupted, which lasted nearly five years and nearly destroyed the whole of Thebens. Finally Tourach made a proposal to end the war. He and his followers had only fought to defend themselves during the war, despising the clash and thinking it pointless. On his suggestion we left the city and struck a magical deal in the desert."

"Since we had to determine who was the strongest of us, we had to fight each other. Tourach had no desire to join the melee and offered to surrender his powers to the strongest of us three. Because he didn't want further innocents harmed in this conflict, he created a contract. We three had to fight us with our own powers only, without employing any mortals for our gains. He decided to be the arbiter of the contest, who would in the end determine the winner. The one of us, who won, would absorb the other's powers and became something incredibly powerful, possibly even godlike! We accepted of course and the contest started."

"For almost a hundred years we fought and still other people suffered in the wake of the contest. As a whole town was destroyed by a volcano eruption caused by Anhur, Tourach visited each of us and imprisoned us for nearly four thousand years, even though I can't understand why this town was bothering him so much. Well, nearly a week ago we rose again and here we are, ready to continue the fight!"

The headache Harry had felt building for the last half an hour now broke out full force and the throbbing in his head caused his thoughts to flow slowly as syrup. Even though the information Crosis gave him explained why the three creatures were here and why they fighting each other, he still had no idea what his role in this conflict was supposed to be. A shudder rolled down Harry's spine as he remembered how casually Crosis had taught about a civil wars caused by him and the other leviathans. The three of them seemed to be so hungry for power and so focused on the contest that life had no value for them. The fact that they had forgotten what the original conflict was about only heightened Harry's repulsion for them. Of course he could simply apparate away, but if they really had arranged the melee just to cause him to show up, then they would employ equal methods to make him come to them again. Not wanting to cause any more bloodshed on this day, Harry decided to stay put and to collect the last bit of information.

"And what has this to do with me?" he asked the skeleton, dreading the answer.

"Well, as you may have noticed Tourach didn't show up." replied the skeleton. "When the first awakened from our slumber, we felt a powerful aura, which led us to this country. We believed that it was Tourach's, but now I'm sure that it was yours. We arrived here, but Tourach was nowhere to be seen. So we decided to arrange a bit of chaos, which should have lured him out of his hiding place. But instead of him you and these clowns showed up. Then you displayed your power with this fireball and I decided to talk to you. You greeted me with the Tash-De, the official greeting of members of the contest. Tourach is not here so you have to fulfil your role as an arbiter and get the whole thing going again!"

"Hang on now." replied Harry, now really getting annoyed. They were trying to force him into a role, he had no desire to fulfil and couldn't fulfil, even if he wanted to. He was absolutely sure that he had nothing to do with this Tourach and Crosis' story had not brought back any memories either. Also he was not going to become the crony of three bloodthirsty, ancient maniacs! "I'm one hundred percent sure that I'm not related to this Tourach and I really don't want to have anything to do with your melee. You don't even have a screw of evidence that your old _arbiter_ is dead, so just leave me alone!"

"There's no reason to get angry now." said Crosis. "And your opinion on this subject isn't important anyway."

"What's that supposed to mean?" snapped Harry.

"It means that you've got no choice in the matter." growled Anhur. "We will continue fighting in two weeks and without an arbiter we will keep on fighting forever. If you want to prevent the death of weaklings, then you should cooperate."

With a feeling of dread Harry realized that he had indeed no choice. All he had was two weeks.


	5. Burrowed Time

Harry jerked out of the trance he had been in since finishing his meeting with the three leviathans, only to find himself standing in front of the door leading to his apartment. At first he couldn't remember how he got there, but then it came rushing back. He had left the battleground in a rush after the three departed, only shouting at Tonks that he would talk to Wright in the morning and explain the situation. He then had apparted home and had climbed the stairs slowly, his mind in turmoil and blank at the same time. Now, standing in front of the door, the key in his right hand, he realized that he wasn't closer to knowing how to handle this situation then he had been almost two hours ago, when he had encountered Crosis for the first time.

He briefly wondered how Scrimgeour would react to the news of him meeting with these three creatures and leaving the battlefield early, but he dismissed this thought quickly. After all he had bigger fishes to fry. He sighed as he felt the weight of this new task on his shoulders. This was bigger than anything he had done in the last five years and probably even bigger than killing Voldemort. And it was even more frustrating because he couldn't even be sure that he had to clear up this mess. When fighting Voldemort, he had been at least sure that the prophecy was indeed affecting him, due to his lightning bolt shaped scar. This time, however, there was the not so small possibility that he had nothing to do with this vendetta and that Tourach was still alive and only hiding out there. Crosis had not presented any real proof for his theory, but Harry had no one to contradict him either. He had to find a solution and he should better find it in the next two weeks.

Suddenly he remembered that he was still standing stock still in front of his door, as though it was a dangerous animal only waiting for a reason to attack him. Shaking his head at himself, he unlocked the door and dispelled the enchantment guarding his home. He entered his apartment and barely had time to close the door, before a fiery spirit of vengeance was on him: Ginny.

"HARRY JAMES POTTER!" she shouted, her blazing red locks flying around, as she underlined her anger by gesticulating wildly. "HOW DARE YOU COMING HOME MORE THAN FOUR HOURS LATE WITH ONLY A TINY SCRIBBLE NOTE? HOW DARE YOU SCARING THE LIVE OUT OF ME? I IMAGINED YOU BEING CAPUTRED BY SOME LUNATIC! AND HERE YOU ARE COMPLETELY FINE, FINALLY RETURNING TO YOUR WIFE AFTER PROBALBY HAVING SPENT THE EVENING GETTING DRUNK WITH WRIGHT AND TONKS! AND DON'T GIVE ME THIS RUBBISH ABOUT BEING ON A MISSION! YOU ARE AN INSTRUCTOR FOR GOD'S SAKE! AND INSTRUCTORS DON'T CATCH ANY EVIL WIZARDS! OR DID YOU HAVE TO ARRESST ONE OF YOU APPRENTICES?"

Harry, how had taken a few steps back due to her outbreak, thought she was beautiful and frightening at the same time, when she was livid. At this moment she strongly reminded him of his mother-in-law, even though he hoped that he would be more able to stand his ground than his father-in-law, when facing an angry wife. Knowing he had to interrupt her soon, or this argument would go on until the wee hours of the morning, he decided to at least give it a try.

"Ginny, I…" was all he was able to say, before getting cut off by his temperamental wife.

"NO, YOU WILL LISTEN TO ME FIRST. IF YOU THINK THAT I'M GOING TO TOLERATE EVERYTHING WHAT YOU DO, THEN YOU ARE VERY MUCH MISTAKEN. I'M AN INDEPENDENT WOMAN AND I'M NOT GOING TO TURN INTO YOUR SLAVE, DO YOU UNDERSTAND – What happened to your face?"

Completely nonplussed and more than a bit startled at the sudden change in the shouting match, Harry started to touch his face with his hands, looking for something abnormal. He winced, when his fingers touched his left cheek, apparently it had been bruised when Crosis' Deathball had knocked him to the ground. Not really sure what Ginny was playing at, he weighted his words carefully before answering, not wanting to upset her even more in this situation, by telling her that he had been chatting with three of the most dangerous creatures in the universe after having slaughtered his way through an army of zombies.

"I seem to have bruised my face, when I was knocked to the ground."

His words caused Ginny to swell like a bullfrog and he quickly realized that he probably should have given her a few more details.

"SO YOU _HAVE_ BEEN DRINKING! WHAT HAPPENED? DID YOU PICK A FIGHT WITH SOMEONE? DID YOU CHAT UP THE WRONG GIRL? TELL ME THIS INSTANT OR I SWEAR I WILL…"

Finally Harry's own violent temper got the better of him. The disaster of a day he had just gone through, combined with Ginny's accusation, simply were too much to be taken lightly.

"Will you shut up and let me explain for god's sake?" he hissed angrily. "I just when through a hell of a day, and I don't really need you lecturing me about something you don't know anything about!"

Ginny opened her mouth, probably to retort in an equally angry way, but Harry cut her off with a sharp hand movement. Seeing the helpless look in his eyes, Ginny swallowed her anger and decided to let him explain first. Harry sighed and ran of his hands through his hair in frustration. He had no idea where to begin and Ginny's piecing stare didn't make it easier. Finally he decided to start at the meeting with Scrimgeour.

"Well, it all started with Scrimgeour calling an emergency meeting, due to something Tonks discovered during one of her missions", he started, not really knowing how to convert his memory into words. "She told us about these undead rallying and... – You know I think I'll simply show you the memory in the pensive, it's hard to explain."

Ginny looked at him for a long time after this statement, before shaking her head and speaking up.

"No, I don't think this would be such a good idea", she said calmly, concern evident in her hazel eyes.

"Why not?" asked Harry, completely nonplussed and wondering how using a pensive could be harmful.

"If this is troubling you so much that you can't even explain it to me, then I think you should really talk about it. A suppressed traumatic experience may lead to a serious neurosis."

At first Harry thought that she was pulling his leg, but her face showed no sign of mischief, it was unusually solemn. He opened his mouth to talk her out of this idea, but then he realized that she had this I'm-not-going-to-give-in-no-matter-what-you-do glint in her eyes and resigned.

"Okay I'm going to tell you, even though you sound like headshrinker. Just be a darling and fetch me a whiskey, will you? I'm going to need some strong stuff to explain this to you."

Ginny pursed her lips at this; she strongly resent alcohol as a way to avoid problems, even though she liked to drink a few glasses on parties as well, and vanished in the kitchen. A few minutes later she returned with two shot glasses, a bottle of bourbon and some ice cubes. Harry raised an eyebrow at her, surprised that she brought something for herself too and the two of them sat done in the living room, placing the drinks on a table between them.

"What? If it's that terrible that you need to get drunk to tell me, then I think I'm going to need something to drink too", she replied. "And about me sounding like a psychiatrist, it can't hurt to have someone in the house, if you are going to continue getting into traumatic situations."

Harry laughed lightly at the extremely serious expression on her face, filled himself a glass with whiskey and ice and drank it in one large gulp. The alcohol hit him hard, because he hadn't eaten in more than five hours and he made a mental note not to get carried away with drinking. He placed the glass back on the table, leaned back in his cantilever chair and started talking. He was amazed how easy it was once he had started. Half an hour later, he was finished and surprisingly felt very much relieved. He felt as though he had done everything he could at the moment so solve the tight situation, in which he was at the moment. Ginny had taken the news much more calmly than he thought. She had never interrupted him, but instead had listened intently, her eyes filled with curiosity and worry at the same time. Currently she was staring out of the window, biting her lip in concentration, as her unseeing gaze fell unto the nightly London skyline.

"Well, what do you think I should do?" asked Harry, finally breaking the solemn moment.

Ginny turned her head slowly and locked eyes with him, her hazel ones peering deeply into his soul. An eternity seemed to pass as they were looking into each other's core and Harry couldn't remember feeling so in peace with the world for a very long time. Then Ginny broke the moment by sighing and answering his question.

"Nothing at the moment", she said thoughtfully. "We don't have enough information to take any concrete measures. Let's assume that you are indeed a child of Tourach then your encounter with Crosis should cause the genetic memories to resurface. I think it would be prudent to ask Hermione for help. Maybe she knows any way to access your old memories. Also you should talk to Wright. He has to prevent the ministry from taking any actions against the three. If Crosis is right then they won't be able to stop the leviathans, no matter how much manpower they use. You will have to save the day, honey."

Harry remained silent for a while, pondering her answer and his luck having found such a smart and understanding wife. Not to mention stunningly beautiful. He suddenly started to notice how tight the t-shirt she wore was and how radiant her hair glowed in the artificial light of the lamps. His throat went dry and he had to use every once of willpower he possessed not to ravage her right there.

Slowly he managed to concentrate again on the matter at hand: the three crazy and incredibly powerful being, how are just now preparing to wreck havoc to the entire world. Finally he was able to speak out the question, which had been blazing through his head throughout the evening:

"And what happens if I'm not a child of Tourach?" he asked. Did his voice always sound so husky?

"Well", replied Ginny, smiling impishly. "Then you simply tell them to fuck off."

Her little joke broke the tension in the room and Harry burst out laughing. When he had clamed done again, Ginny was standing next to his chair. Before he even had thought about it, he was already hugging her tightly.

"Thanks for making me talk it really helped", he whispered into her ear. "It's good to have a headshrinker as a wife."

Ginny laughed lightly, before kissing him softly on the lips.

"Are you hungry Harry?" she asked. "I've still got some chicken sandwich, which you could have."

"Oh, I am hungry", he said, his lust rekindled at the close contact between them. "But I don't think chicken sandwich will satisfy me."

He kissed her again, more demanding and much deeper. He felt a small moan escape his throat, or was it hers? Just as his hands started roaming her body, she broke the kiss and pushed him away gently.

"Harry", she said softly. "I don't think this is such a good idea. You have to come to terms with today's events and not trying to forget them by shagging me silly. You should eat something and go to bed, you look exhausted. Oh, and wear you boxers to bed."

With these words she disappeared in the bedroom, leaving Harry behind, who felt somewhere between disappointed and grateful.

- - - - -

The next morning, Harry was sitting in Wright's office, waiting for his boss to arrive. He had dispelled the locking charm on the door himself, like he had done countless times before. At first this habit had irritated Wright a bit, but over the last years he had become used to it and now regarded it as a challenge to find a locking charm Harry couldn't break. So far he had been unsuccessful.

Harry was grateful for the head's absence, because it gave him the time to think about yesterday's and today's events and enabled him to carefully plan his next steps. He hadn't rested well this night, even though he wasn't quite sure what had startled him. He could recall pieces of a dream, flashes of unknown places and persons, but nothing concrete except the fact that it had been very unpleasant. His intuition told him that it was important nevertheless. Maybe it were the first parts of the genetic memories coming back. Maybe he would know a way to solve this problem tomorrow… or maybe his sub consciousness was only trying to deal with it and was projection his confusion into his dreams.

Running a hand through his hair in frustration at his lack of options and at having no concrete plan how to get out of this mess, he rose from his chair and started to pace in the office. Forcing himself to think of something positive, he recalled his conversation with Ginny earlier this morning. She had been a bit surprised as he told her that he would continue training the recruits, but had understood his need for a bit of normalcy in this anything but ordinary situation. He had told her that he would ask Wright to assign Tonks to help him, due to him having to take care of the leviathans and needing time for research. She had told him, that she would talk with Hermione and Ron this morning, asking them for help. Ginny had been very confident that Hermione would be able to think of something of assistance and Harry wondered if she was just trying to cheer him up. She told him to send her an owl, if he was finished, so she could bring him up to date.

Precisely in this moment Wright entered the room, looking exhausted and as though he had slept in his robes, which wasn't saying much, because he almost always looked like this. Nevertheless his eyes were sparkling with mirth and Harry suspected that he, being the notorious workaholic he was, was enjoying every moment of the crisis. That he was used to getting no more than three hours sleep, due to his habit of getting drunk in sleazy bars every evening helped too.

"You will pay for every hole in my hardwood floor, Potter", he said, smiling. "Your pacing really is an annoying habit. Would you mind stopping it?"

"Only if you stop drinking and smoking, sir", replied Harry cheekily, causing Wright's smile to erupt into a full blown laughing fit.

"If I ever do this then you will know that hell has officially frozen over", he managed to reply after a while, wiping the tears of mirth from his eyes. "Well, let's at least try to be serious and professional. Tonks has already told me about your conversation yesterday or at least she has told me what she overheard. And I really didn't like what she told me, so please spare me the details. I know that you are somehow connected with these three powerful creatures and that you will probably have to save the Wizarding World again. But you have to know that it's very likely that you have to solve this problem on your own. The ministry is so goddamned bureaucratic these days that they will probably need ten years to accept your request for additional manpower."

Harry laughed lightly at his boss' joke, which wasn't so far from the truth as it seemed. Only the personal interference of the minister of magic seemed to be able to cause the ministry to speed its working up and he doubted very much that Scrimgeour would be willing to assist him. Adding the bureaucracy to his mental things-that-suck-in-the-ministry-and-have-to-be-changed-as-soon-as-possible list, Harry spoke up.

"I doubt that any ministry workers would be helpful anyway. These three are completely merciless and thoroughly affixed on finishing their stupid contest. They are more than willing to kill everyone who tries to prevent them from continuing it. Also I doubt that we know any magic powerful enough to kill or to incapacitate them. They were imprisoned by one of their kind and the spell doing this was highly complicated and only managed to hold them for a time. I still have to work out a way to stop them and while I'm doing this it would be best for everyone to avoid the three leviathans as much as possible."

"All right", answered John Wright, apparently satisfied with Harry's explanation. "I won't order any mission against the three, but I must warn you that the minister is still able to overrule me. Scrimgeour has been livid as he learned that you have left the battleground early and not reported to him after having spoken with the enemy. Mumbled something of insubordination and that the ministry lacked loyalty these days. You know the usual rubbish. However it will be tough to convince him to leave this matter to you. I suggest that you think about some good points for him to do so until Monday; he will be out of town for the weekend and have very clear orders not to disturb him. But enough of this, we still have to discuss your suspension from your job."

"Suspension from my job?" replied Harry, frowning, believing that Scrimgeour had found another way to annoy and to hinder him. "What exactly do you mean by this?"

"Well, clearly you will need time to develop a strategy and I doubt that teaching the rookies will help you."

"Yeah", said Harry, running a hand through his hair. "I have thought about this and decided that I need the job to have a bit of normalcy in this madness. Naturally I do need time to work something out, so I though about sharing the instructor's post with Tonks. She is a skilled auror, a good teacher and incredibly bored by the normal auror work, so she's a perfect choice."

Wright took his time pondering this suggestion, before answering.

"Okay, I agree, but you better be successful or the minister will have us both transferred to our branch in Timbuktu, if we are lucky. If we are unlucky, we will end up in Greenland. I will inform Tonks immediately and she will assist you from Monday forth. I suggest that you go home and get a decent night's sleep, you look like a walking dead."

"Please don't make any zombie-jokes in the next two years", groaned Harry. "I saw enough of them for a lifetime yesterday. And you don't look very peachy yourself."

"Yeah, but that was due to the great company I had in bed yesterday", replied the headauror as he left the office.

- - - - -

Half an hour later Harry found himself sitting in a crowded café in central muggle London with Ron, Hermione and Ginny. He had owled Ginny directly after his meeting with Wright and had received note to meet her here ten minutes later. After having changed into a more appropriate outfit regarding his not magical surroundings, he had apparated to a small side street only a block away. After paving his way through the early morning shoppers, he arrived at the small, cosy café and found his friends already waiting for him.

Sitting down, he took in all of his surroundings with the trained gaze of an auror and was pleased with the meeting place. It was way too crowded for someone to spy on them without getting noticed and to risk of getting overheard was small, due to the noise caused by the various inhabitants.

"Hey", he said, while sitting down and pecking Ginny on the cheek. "Any brainwaves yet?"

"Not yet", said Ginny. "It took some time to explain the situation to them and we wanted to wait for you to tell us about the next steps the ministry will take."

"Yup", interrupted Ron, smiling despite the thoroughly serious character of the meeting. "Looks like you're in trouble again mate. I still can't believe that I let my sister marry such a troublemaker."

"You let Harry marry me?" asked Ginny, her eyes sparkling furiously and her voice dangerously sharp. "Ronald Bilius Weasley, I have told more than a hundred times to keep out of…"

"What Ron and I wanted to say, Harry is that we are terrible sorry that you are in this situation and will do everything to help you", interrupted Hermione, effectively smothering the brewing argument. She reached over the table and gave Harry's hand a reassuring squeeze before continuing. "That's what we wanted to do, right Ron?"

Ron, cowed by the dangerous look Hermione threw him, only nodded his head in silent agreement.

"Anyway, I talked to Wright this morning", started Harry and quickly told them what he and Wright had decided to do.

"I don't get why Scrimgeour is so foul to you", said Ron, puzzled. "He can't believe that you want to steal his power away. You never liked the attention you received for being the boy-who-lived and why on earth should you strive to gain even more fame? Also if you really wanted to become minister of magic all you had to do is to run for it, people would vote you simple because you are you."

"Well, I think the minister still believes that he played a big part in Voldemort's downfall", said Ginny, thoughtfully. "And now he wants to prove the public and himself that he still is the big shot he used to be. But we should concern ourselves with that git, the three leviathans are more important at the moment."

"I have though about that", gushed Hermione and Harry could help to feel amused at his friend's excitement. If there was a puzzle to solve, Hermione was happy and the more complex it was the better. "I doubt that we have any concrete information about the three, after all they are more then four thousand years old, but I will search the ministry archives for any books and spells dealing with artificial planes. Maybe we can entrap them again, if can find the right spell and rise enough energy to power it. I will also search for any volumes dealing with magical memories. If you really have a genetic memory then we should try to unlock the information stored in it."

"I have been pondering this, too", said Ginny. "The memories have to be buried very deeply or they would rise to the surface without the heir ever meeting the leviathans and would grant him or her tremendous power. I guess that the memories have been connected to certain charms, which would awaken them to prevent any kind of abuse. But we don't know in which situation they will resurface and I wouldn't rely on chances. Maybe Harry should drink the Draught of the Living Past to regain them."

"Are you completely insane?" blurted Ron, his eyes wide at his sister's suggestion. "Even I know that this potion is ridiculously dangerous and only used in the most desperate cases, because it may cause the drinker to go bloody mad."

"I know this Ronald", replied Ginny, briskly. "After all I'm nearly a healer, but just in case you haven't noticed this i _is /i _ a desperate case."

"But not i _that_ /i desperate", replied her brother stubbornly.

"Would anybody bother to explain to me what you are on about?" asked Harry, completely nonplussed.

"The Draught of the Living Past is the most potent memory restoring potion", lectured Hermione. "It causes all memories of the user to be recalled at the same time, even if they are buried or unknown to the person. However this is very straining for the mind of the patient and may cause lasting damage. Also it may only used by healers if they have permission by the ministry."

"Can you brew or organize it?" asked Harry immediately, eager for any hope in this slightly desperate situation.

"Harry, mate", interrupted Ron. "You can't be serious! This sick stuff may fry your brain! This is way too dangerous and the situation really isn't that bad."

"It isn't more dangerous than any of the stuff we experienced at school", replied Harry heatedly. "We always took chances and this is a risk I'm willing to take. I'm not going to watch idly while other people are getting slaughtered. Not if I had been able to prevent it. Please try to organize this stuff, I will wait as long as possible before drinking it, but I need to be prepared."

Subdued Ginny, Ron and Hermione agreed, even though all of them had serious doubt that this was the right course of action. They started chatting about less serious topic and Harry felt himself relaxing a bit. After a while he realized how tired he was, his restless night was finally taking its toll.

"You didn't sleep well tonight, did you Harry?" asked Ginny, as she saw him yawning.

"Yeah, how do you know?" replied Harry, surprised that she knew about this.

"I felt you tossing and turning next to me."

"Woah, way too much information here", interrupted Ron. "I really don't need to know this."

"Well we are through here anyway, so I think it would be best if we call it a date and go home", said Hermione.

Everyone agreed and five minutes later, Harry and Ginny were back at their apartment.

- - - - -

Not having realized how tired he had been until Ginny had ushered him to bed, using her best Molly Weasley imitation, Harry was surprised how easy sleep claimed him. He was sound asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow and once again found himself in a kaleidoscope of incoherent pictures. Some were snatches of his own memories, some obviously purely fictional, like the crowd of flying pink bunnies, singing 'Weasley is our king' and some seemed to be complete memories of someone else. Harry didn't know how long he had floated through this maelstrom of information, because time had no significance while dreaming. Finally one scene replaced the flurry and Harry found himself seeing a torch lit cave.

He could see the entrance of the cave, which was about twenty feet to his right and saw a moonlit desert outside. The silver glow it reflected made it look peaceful, even though it possibly was hellish during the day. The sound of a voice behind him made him spun round and he found himself face to face with a hulky man, with short black hair, a full beard and a big scar running from his left temple to his right cheek. Apparently he had spoken to him and to his astonishment Harry heard himself answering in the same strange language the other man used, although he didn't understand a word. Two other voices joined the discussion, one male and one female. Harry realized that two other persons beside himself and the brute were in the cave. One was a beautiful female with light brown hair, blue eyes and blood-red lips and one was a gangly man with an equally thin face and long, thick black hair tied in an elegant braid.

The four of them continued talking for a while, before their voices got excited and they left the cave in a hurry. The sensation of not being able to control his own actions disturbed Harry, but due to this being a dream he wasn't overly concerned. After what either was an eternity or merely a minute they reached their final destination. They were standing on a hill in the desert and had gathered around a delicate crystal at their feet. It consisted mainly of three peaks, which glowed blue-black, red-green and white, and a circular base, which glittered in all colours.

Harry found himself saying something, which caused the other people to contradict him heatedly. He had no idea what the argument was about, but judging by its intensity it was either something very important or very tempting. After a long discussion, Harry found himself giving in. Somehow this encounter in the desert and especially the strange crystal seemed to be vaguely familiar, but he couldn't remember where he learned about it. Suddenly he felt his hand brush something warm and realized that the four of them were touching the crystal. A few seconds nothing happened, but then the world vanished in a blinding white flash. For a moment Harry got a glimpse at his face or what was supposed to be his face. Instead he was looking at a young man's face, with short brown hair, long sideburns and soft and kind charcoal eyes. Then he jerked awake.

Sitting up in his bed, he took deep breaths to calm down. It really was no reason to panic. All of this could simply be a product of his imagination, after all Crosis' tale had been very descriptive. The only thing he hadn't known before was how Tourach looked like and he had to ask one of the leviathans about this before being sure about the nature of this dream or vision or whatever it had been. Praying that it had only been a dream and not one of these suppressed genetic memories, Harry slipped out of bed and got dressed again. He quickly left the flat, telling Ginny that he had to inquire something and apparated to the location where Crosis had told him to go, when he had any questions. A blink later Harry was standing on a big plateau, face to face with the skeletal mage.

"So you have returned..", started Crosis, but Harry cut him off immediately.

"How did Tourach look like?" he asked in a rush.

"Around six feet tall, lean, short brown hair, long sideburns and black eyes, why?" replied the leviathan, his face contorted into something which might be a frown.

His question remained unanswered because Harry had already apparated away, the last bit of his hope of being unaffected by the titan's clash shattered into a billion pieces.


	6. Titans Clash

When Harry reappeared in front of the door leading to his apartment, a steely glint was shining in his eyes. Sometimes certainty was a curse and a blessing at the same time. The vision had dispelled any doubts Harry had concerning his role in this vendetta, effectively destroying his vision of a simple and happy life after Voldemort's fall. A part of him was weeping for this loss even now, while another one whooped with joy. He had not realized it during his youth, due to the amount of excitement his had been in, but he needed a certain amount of excitement in his life. The last five years had been the happiest of his life so far, but he had always found something lacking. Now he knew that all he had been missing was a goal for him to strive for. Something what demanded all of his skill, time and energy. Something like defeating Voldemort. Now he had gotten his wish.

With the last bit of doubt eliminated, Harry started to become again the person he had once been. The untiring fighter, who had fought his way through Death Eaters and had enjoyed every minute of it, had awoken and was preparing to emerge once again. His thoughts were as focused as they had not been in a very long time and completely dedicated to find a way to stop the three leviathans. Harry knew that only by tapping all of his powers he had a chance to come out of this disaster unscathed, although it was a very slim one. Still he needed all information which he could get and he strongly suspected that the knowledge he needed was stored in his genetic memory.

He probably would have to drink the Draught of the Living Past to access it and he wasn't as sure that he would be able to handle the potion's side effects as he wanted Ron, Hermione and especially Ginny to believe. Truth be told, he was terrified at the idea of becoming mad. Since he had seen Neville's parent's lifeless shells, getting tortured to insanity was a regular part of his worst nightmares. He could not even start to guess what being mad would feel like, but he strongly suspected that thinking about it too much would make him find it out first hand soon enough. Still he had risked insanity once before, when he had swallowed Serum and the encounter with his dark doppelganger wasn't an experience he was eager to repeat. Well, after all his only alternative was watching people suffer until he died and that really was no alternative. Sometimes having no choice was very comforting.

Harry knew that Ginny would notice that he was changing back and that she was not going to like it. She had tried hard over the past five years to make him forget the hardships of the war he had to go through and the annihilation of all her successes in a single day would not make her happy. She had always hated that he had to fight, hated that he was a marked man, destined to kill or to die. Harry hoped that she would be convinced that he was indeed a child of Tourach and would not dismissed the memory he had witnessed as a simple dream. Making a mental note to stay clam and to get Hermione going with the Draught, he took a deep breath and entered the flat.

Monday morning found Harry sitting in a meeting room with Wright and Scrimgeour, even though he should be training the recruits. He had received a memo precisely ten minutes ago, which ordered him to get his ass into this conference room in five minutes sharp and was signed by now other than by the minister of magic himself. Strongly suspecting that Scrimgeour was going to rant about last week's battle, he told Tonks to take over and made his way to the meeting place, going extra slowly just for the good measure. Of course it was childish to fuel the minister's fire if it wasn't necessary, but Harry could not help it. He simply liked the idea of further ruining Scrimgeour's day.

As he had planned, he arrived late, earning him an amused smile by Wright and a perfect glare of death by the minister. Before he had even been able to greet the two men, he was in the middle of one of Scrimgeour's famous rants. Not having thought of any arguments to justify his early leave of the battleground, Harry decided not to interrupt him, but to let him blow out his steam before taking an active role in this encounter. He had employed this strategy various times before and knowing what the other persons said wasn't important for its success. Therefore he tuned the minister out and instead started to think about the last two days.

Telling Ginny about his vision, his encounter with Crosis and the meaning of these two things had not been as difficult as he thought it would be. Truth be told, she had not seemed to be surprised by the information. When he was finished she only told him that this one more reason to prepare himself as good as possible. Harry had been a bit puzzled by her reaction and had used subtle Legimency to find the reason for her change of attitude. Gently probing Ginny's mind, he had found out that she still didn't like the idea of him fighting, but didn't want to make his situation even worse by making a scene. Sometimes he loved being able to read other people's minds, but he didn't like to use this gift on Ginny, because it felt a bit like betraying her trust. Therefore he never pushed to deeply and only examined the surface of the mind, which reflected the current emotions, memories and thoughts.

The sudden silence of the room jerked him out of his memories. Scrimgeour was breathing deeply as though he had just run a marathon and Wright's face was completely inscrutable. Guessing that he should say something to ease the situation, but being unable to remember what Scrimgeour had said, Harry took a lucky guess.

"I understand your disapproval sir", he said, his voice void of all emotions. "I'm sorry and it won't happen again."

Scrimgeour looked at him with unhidden hatred in his eyes and searched Harry's face and voice for any signs of sarcasm or disobedience. Much to his dismay he was unable to find any and therefore had no reason to continued raging at Harry. Instead he spoke up in his normal, calm voice.

"Good, then you won't have any objections to me forbidding you to come near the three creatures ever again. You will leave this matter to the ministry."

"WHAT?" cried Harry, unable to think of any reason or benefit the minister would have to justify this course of action.

"Yes, you obviously have just your ability to act correctly under pressure or you would not have acted so irresponsible during the incident last week", replied Scrimgeour, a smug look plastered on his face. "Therefore I have decided to place this matter in more competent hands."

Searing anger shot through Harry at Scrimgeour's statement. He could not believe that the minister was stupid enough to forbid him to meet with the Three, just because he felt threatened by him. He also had not thought that Scrimgeour had the nerves to tell him that he wasn't able to handle pressure. After all he had saved his ass along with the rest of the Wizarding World as he had battled Voldemort! And here he was, declaring him incompetent, while being cool as a cucumber. Once again Harry felt the old feeling of injustice rising in him, which mixed with his anger and created a blinding rage. This wasn't what he had fought for. This wasn't the world he had tried to save and he wasn't going to let his fighting be in vain!

"That's enough minister", interrupted Wright's voice, slicing the short silence like a knife. Harry suddenly realized that his right hand was gripping his wand tightly and by the tenseness of his muscles he could tell that he had been only a split second away from jumping out of his chair. The fact that he could not remember what he was about to do then frightened him. His rage ebbed away as quickly as it erupted and he was grateful for the headauror's interruption, because it didn't take a genius to realize that he had been about to get into even greater trouble.

"There is no need to argue about your orders", continued Wright while throwing Harry a sharp look. "Nor is there the need to abuse your powers for you personal benefit or to rub it into other people faces."

Harry heard Scrimgeour inhaling sharply at Wright's obvious critique and he was sure that his boss stepped out of bounds this time. However, once again the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement knew how to ease a dangerous situation.

"Auror Potter will of course honour your orders, even though they maybe a bit rash in my humble opinion", continued Wright, sounding completely serious, although Harry could swear that he saw a mischievous twinkle in the older auror's eyes for an instant. "Potter has shown an unusual connection with the three creatures and maybe it would be possible to exploit this to the ministry's advantage."

"However, my view is not of important in this matter. I am sure that you, minister, have many sources and information, not to mention your profound wisdom, I can't access and therefore your orders will be the ones with the most promising outcome."

Harry had to bite back a laugh at Wright's little speech, which was even harder due to the delicate mixture of disbelieve and shock written on the ministers face. Despite the obvious sarcasm in his words, John Wright's face or voice had been completely serious and even his eyes didn't betray him. Therefore the minister had no other choice than to believe that he was indeed serious and probably a bit melodramatic. Harry realized that his boss' flattery had been only a tool to prevent the minister from taking any measures against him. Judging by the Scrimgeour's reaction, who was still gasping like a fish out of the water and seemed at a loss of words, it had been successful.

Finally after another minute, Scromgeour regained his composure and stood up, preparing to leave the room.

"Well you've got my orders, carry them out!" he said as he walked out of the meeting, still looking a bit dazed at Wright.

Harry's amusement turned to surprise as Wright extracted a bottle of bourbon and two shot glasses out of a secret compartment, which had been part of the big table, which took most of the space of the room. The headauror summoned a few ice cubes, dropped them into the glasses and filled them. Then he placed one of the glasses and raised his own, as though he was about to bring out a toast.

"I really don't see the reason to celebrate this meeting", said Harry, his brow furrowed in confusion. "I have been removed from the case and am not allowed to go anywhere near the three leviathans. Sure, your little act has been funny, but not that funny to alight this dark day."

"Ah, stop being so melodramatic Harry", replied Wright chuckling. "You are forgetting that Scrimgeour has only power over you while you are working for the ministry. I have once been in the same situation and I have been able to find a little loophole. Simply go on holiday before you meet with the three and the little problem is solved."

For a moment Harry was too stunned to respond, than he took his glass and clinked it against Wright's.

"John Wright, you are a genius!" he said, before gulping down the amber liquid.

A week later, 9 pm:

The book Harry had been holding fell to the hardwood floor with a dull thud, as a pair of lips pressed against the sensitive base of his neck. Expertly they found the most excitable spot and started to kiss and to suck it. Harry moaned as a wave of pleasure hit him and immediately he felt Ginny slipping into the chair he was sitting in and settling in his lap. He briefly wondered how she managed to do this without breaking contact, but his thoughts were washed away as Ginny abandoned his neck and kissed him hard on the lips. Instantly he opened his mouth and allowed their tongues to tangle and to dance slowly. A feral growl escaped his mouth as his lust flared and he realized how much he had been craving this. They shortly stopped kissing, due to lack of oxygen and the short pause allowed Harry to think clearly for a moment.

He was a bit surprised at Ginny's bold move, because she had told him not to have sex with her until he had come to terms with his new problem and that had barely been one and a half weeks ago. Therefore he had not tried to seduce her, even though he had been in the mood so many times. Apparently she had decided that he had taken a long enough gap. Or maybe she simply was too eager for it herself.

Harry's musing were pleasantly interrupted by Ginny capturing his mouth again, while she started to rub herself against him. Harry felt his arousal getting painful and made a mental note to stop her teasing as soon as possible. Her hands grabbed the hem of his shirt and yanked it over his head, when they stopped kissing for a moment. He wasn't wearing anything underneath, due to the heat of the day, and Ginny started to trail kisses down his bare chest, enjoying feeling him shiver in pleasure beneath her. She was going agonizingly slowly and Harry could see it in her eyes that she was loved every minute of this sweet torture.

"Ginny", gasped Harry in a husky whisper, once feeling his arousal straining in the confinement of his jeans. "Stop teasing!"

"I though undressing someone slowly was good", she replied impishly, replacing her mouth with her hands and started to massage him.

"Yes, but there is slow and there is _slow._

"Well, try to stop me then!"

"It will be my pleasure!"

In a lightning fast movement, he flipped them. Now Ginny was trapped between the back of the chair and him. Before she could react, he had linked there mouths in a searing kiss and had grabbed both of her wrist with his arms, forcing them gently but firm over her head. He wandlessly vanished her blouse and her bra and broke the kiss, lowering his mouth to her exposed torso. "Revenge is so sweet", he whispered, before starting to kiss his way down to her breasts. She screamed with pleasure as he started to suck one of her sensitive nipples and tried to free her hands, but Harry held her in place. After a while, which was long enough to turn her flame of arousal into a firestorm, but not long enough to make her come, he abandoned her breast and started to suck at her bellybutton.

"Okay, okay, I yield", Ginny managed to say after groaning in frustration. "Please Harry do it!"

"What am I supposed to do?" he asked, grinning teasingly.

"You know exactly what I mean!"

"Maybe you have to refresh my memory."

"Fine, you bloody tease! I want you to eat me!" she replied angrily, not at all amused at his little game.

"Your wish is my command fair lady", returned Harry, smiling at his untainted victory in this little contest.

He released her hands, deciding that he had made his point and quickly pulled off her jeans and her soaked knickers. Not wanting to tease her anymore, he lowered his face to her wet folds and started to lick her. Ginny's hands buried themselves in his hair and he responded by giving her clitoris a lazy lick, causing her to cry out his name. Orally satisfying a girl was very arousing for Harry and he was now more eager then ever to get some release himself. Therefore he tried to make Ginny come as quickly as possible and as usual she wasn't able to resist for a long time. He continued licking her while she rode the waves of her orgasm and only stopped as she was lying still on the chair.

"Ready?" he asked her, as he slipped out of his jeans and boxers, his penis straining for release of his confinement.

"God, yes", she responded weakly.

Smiling Harry, cupped her cheek with his left hand, before crushing his mouth to hers in a flaring kiss and entered her quickly, while his right hand sneaked down to her clit. For a moment he was lost in the great sensation her velvet softness caused, but he recovered swiftly and started to move inside of her, while kissing her and stroking her sensitive nub. Time lost all meaning as they enjoyed the pleasure of being joined. Finally their orgasm hit both of them nearly at the same time and their brains were shaking under the storm of delight.

Spent, the two of them snuggled together and fell asleep, despite the still early hour.

The rest of the burrowed two weeks washed away quickly. Harry's success in gathering enough information to create a plan had been very limited indeed. Except for a few snatches, his genetic memory had remained remarkably silent. Even Hermione's researches had been futile, a fact which highly disturbed the studious witch, who was used to be able to raise any information she wanted. That was one of the reasons, why she had agreed in brewing the Draught of the Living Past, despite Harry's continuous nagging, of course. However it wasn't easy to get all the ingredients this complex potion required, due to a part of them being illegal. Harry's tons of galleons had been highly helpful there, because more than once they had to bribe their way out of a dangerous situation.

Ron and Ginny had thought it their duty to prevent Harry from breaking down in this desperate situation, but to their astonishment their support had not been necessary. Quite the contrary, Harry seemed to be looking forward to the encounter! His eyes had that gleam, which could be seen in them during the last phase of his crusade against Voldemort and he spent almost ever free minute to prepare for his role in this mess with untiring vigour. While Ron was more than a little relieved with this change, due to his inability to deal with highly emotional persons, Ginny was more than a little concerned. In her opinion, Harry should not enjoy such a serious situation and it would be highly irresponsible to fuel his lust for excitement.

Things had been quiet in the ministry after Scrimgeour's announcement, mainly because Harry, thanks to Wright's loophole, had no reasons to protest against it. This confused many people, even though all information in a meeting should be confidential, but Harry remained tight lipped over the whole encounter, not wanting the loophole closed directly before being the arbiter for the first time. Scrimgeour himself was more than a bit satisfied with himself, feeling that he had protect his authority very well. The trainees wondered why they were coached by Tonks and Harry, and also observed that he seemed to be more distant than usual. Not really integrated in the ministry rumour mill, they had no explanations for this strange behaviour. And Wright was waiting patiently for any developments, but made sure to drink a glass on Harry's health and success every evening.

The day of the first battle, early evening:

Harry apparated in front of the three leviathans with a silent pop. They were standing in the same canyon in which they had met for the first time two weeks ago. Following Wright's advice, Harry had taken the day off and was therefore wearing casual muggle clothes instead of auror robes. Something stirred inside of him as he realized that the three creatures were standing in triangle of dancing flames and a circle had been painted in the middle of it into the ground. He hoped that this was the first sign of another rush of knowledge out of his genetic memory, because he still had no idea what he had to do.

"Ah Harry, how nice of you to join us. I hope join enjoyed your two weeks?" said Crosis, with a smile, which strongly resembled a leer, on his face.

"Yeah, they were very relaxing", replied Harry, in what he hoped was a casual voice, being unwilling to show the three how nervous he was about the meeting.

"Then you will be more than ready to fulfil your part", said Shai in her emotionless voice and pointed at the circle in the middle. "Get going then."

Guessing what he had to do; Harry entered the burning triangle and stepped into the circle. In precisely this moment his head started to hurt excruciatingly.

Even though the pain lasted only for a split second, Harry nearly passed out. When he his vision cleared again and his head stopped throbbing, though, he knew exactly what to do.

"Welcome to the next round to the Great Contest", he said, the words spilling out of his mouth without him being able to control it. "I am happy to announce that all contestants are here, so we can start without any further delays"

"As you all know a combat round last exactly five hours, fifty-five minutes and fifty seconds. Also exactly fifteen days have to pass before the next round can start. The contest continues until one of you has bested the others. Any questions?"

No one of the three titans even bothered to answer, so Harry decided to continue or at least he was decided to continue.

"As you all know it is forbidden to attack the arbiter, unless he is purposely sabotaging the contest and it is forbidden to employ any persons or creatures, which have not been summoned by one of the contestants, not involved in this conflict to gain an advantage. Now we have to choose an area at random, which has to be in a 120 miles radius of the first encounter between the arbiter and the contestants and will serve us as tonight's arena."

More than a bit surprised by himself, Harry summoned a map and waved his wand in a complicated pattern. It caused a small part of the map to glow lightly and the three leviathans instantly departed to their new final destination. Hesitant and concerned Harry followed them.

Much to Harry's dismay their new location was very close to a small muggle village. They were surrounded by wheat fields and small, lush forests, the peacefulness of the landscape creating a harsh contrast to the purpose of their meeting. Pushing the feeling of dread in his stomach away, Harry raised his hands and started drawing complicated patterns in the air, chanting under his breath. A shimmering, jet black orb approximately the size of a bludger, appeared in the sky above them. Even as he lowered his hands to complete the spell, small parts of the globe were turning brighter. Harry knew what the globe would be completely white, as soon as the time for this round was up. Four beams of light erupted from the sky borne orb and hit the four of them, signalizing the beginning of the contest. Instantly the three leviathans rushed into action.

Anhur opened combat by summoning a shower of white hot coals and firing them at Shai, who happened to stand in front of Harry. She easily sidestepped them, but Harry, not having been able to see them until a few seconds before, had a much harder time avoiding getting hit. He had to use a sideward role to escape the brunt of the attack, but still got hit in the right arm by a few coals. They burned their way through the tee shirt he was wearing, but he was able to banish them before they did more than lightly singed his skin. Making a mental note to be more careful in the future, he refocused his attention on the battle going on.

Apparently the three titans had not waited for him to recover before continuing with their battle. Already the landscape was singed and several small fires were hungrily consuming the fertile land around. Harry also saw several of Shai's large crystals burrowed in the ground, obviously used as a missile only a few instants before. Still he had not been able to spot the three leviathans. Looking around wildly, he finally saw them flying twenty feet up in the sky. Cursing, because the chances of finishing this affair without the muggles noticing were now nearly zero, he cast a levitation charm on himself and floated up in the air. In that moment, Crosis fired a Deathball at Anhur, who turned into magma and simply created a hole in himself to prevent getting hit. The stray missile hit the edge of the village and Harry could see the pressure wave dealing serious damage to a few houses. Harry opened his mouth to protest, as Shai brought her arms up to her head and unleashed a wave of extremely intense light.

Instinctively and just in time, Harry shielded his eyes with his hands, but the brightness was so extreme that it shone directly through his palms and therefore he still got blinded and a stabbing pain erupted in his oculars. For a moment panic rose in him, caused by his possibly permanent loss of eyesight, but he managed to fight it down and stayed put, hoping that his eyes would regenerate soon. He didn't know how long it took, but finally his vision changed from absolute white to complete black. Taking this as a good sign, Harry carefully removed his hands from his eyes and was more than a bit relieved to discover that he could see again, although his vision was still blurry. He made a mental note to be even more careful in the future, after all he had no idea what would have happened to him, if he had not been able to shield his eyes in time. He carefully observed his surroundings and what he saw could have easily been a part of his nightmares.

The golden wheat fields and great parts of the village were burning bright, incinerated by one of Anhur's countless fire spells, and were swarming with activity. Burning and walking trees, obviously followers of Anhur, were fighting against a fresh wave of ice zombies and Harry saw a few knights made of shining crystals also taking part in the melee. But what disturbed him most was that a few inhabitants of the village seemed to have engaged the troops, wanting to protect their homes. The magical fighters didn't take interruption very well and slaughtered the peasants, who seemed to be all muggle, judging by the mass of pistols, rifles and other muggle arms they carried. A hard lump appeared in Harry's throat as he watched the innocents die in dozens; they didn't have the slightest chance.

Pulling himself together Harry jumped into action, wanting to save as many of them as possible. He apparated directly into the melee in the scorching village and managed to rip an ice zombie to shreds with a Reductor Curse just before it beheaded another villager with his wicked claws. Not having time to explain the situation to the muggles, he stunned everyone close to him and started to apparate them out of the village to a clearing in the nearby forest. Fortunately the soldiers ignored the stunned villagers and didn't attack Harry, obviously recognizing him as the arbiter. His process was slow and every minute more innocents died, especially thanks to the clouds of whirring, sharp crystal Shai summoned or thanks to Crosis' acid rain. Smoke burned in his lungs and caused his eyes to water, acid rained from the sky and burned into his skin, while crystalline shrapnel flew through the air. Every sense he had screaming at him to get the hell out of this death trap, but he knew that he could never forsake the villagers. Gritting his teeth, he wiped the sweat and sooth from his forehead and conjured a shield around him, to prevent getting seriously injured by the acid and the shrapnel.

He didn't know how long he actually tried to rescue the helpless victims, but he managed to save about fifty. However he had discovered more than two hundred corpse during his trips to the village, including women and children. And still the leviathans were clashing and every strike shook the remaining foundations of the village. Harry saw a Deathball crashing in one of the last standing buildings and much to his dismay he discovered that a few people were still in it! Blinking as fast as he could, he barely managed to get their in time to cast a levitation spell to prevent the building from collapsing completely. However he knew that he was too weak to channel the spell continuously for a large amount of time.

The porous stone creaked and groaned, but the magic held it firmly in place. The three people inside the building, a young woman with a baby and an old man, looked at Harry in disbelieve. Harry could not blame them for being confused, after all he had just appeared out of thin air, waved a wand to prevent the house from collapsing and was surrounded by a glowing shield, which would flash ever so often when hit by an acid drop. Still they really had not the time.

"Quick!" he said, his voice raspy from the smoke and his throat burning. "I can't hold the building much longer! You have to get out of here! Run to the forest, everything is going down!"

"Who…Who are you?" asked the young woman, her confusion evident on her face. "How are you doing this?"

"I can't explain this to you, there is no time for god's sake!" replied Harry angrily. "Get moving you fool or do you want to die here?"

"But…" the girl tried to say.

"NO!" shouted Harry, feeling his concentration slipping. "GET GOING! AT LEAST GIVE THE BABY A CHANCE TO LIVE!"

Finally they started to move hesitantly. Harry's whole body was hurting, the strain of the evening finally taking its toll. Half a minute later the three muggles had disappeared in the twilight which surrounded them and Harry stopped his spell. Just as the house crumbled, he passed out.

A blacker spot in the already pitch black sky, Sandro decided that he had seen enough. Cowed by the enormous power of the Three, he decided to stay out of this conflict as long as possible. Making a mental note to keep up to date nevertheless, he vanished in the nightly sky, just as the orb Harry had summoned turned completely white.


	7. Buried Memories

Harry did not know how long he had been unconscious, but he did know that he had been close to dieing again. While he had been out, the flames which had been consuming the village had advanced so close that they were searing his eyebrows. His lungs felt as though they were on fire and he had a very difficult time breathing. The three leviathans were nowhere in sight and he guessed that they had simply departed after the round of combat was over. The orb he had cast was shining brightly in the sky, now completely white. Wondering how many people had survived the inferno of the evening, Harry took a last glance around and apparated back home.

Harry all but fell into the apartment after he had opened the door. Suddenly he had felt weak as a newborn child and he was more than a bit surprised that he had been able to prevent the collapse. He had no idea which of his various injuries had caused his dizzy spell, after all they ranged from acid burns to smoke poisoning, but he really did not give a damn as long as he was patched up soon. Just as he had managed to regain his balance two small, but strong arms took hold of him. Too weak to protest, Harry allowed Ginny to lead him to the living room and laid down one the couch. He opened his mouth to explain to her what had happened to him, but she silenced him by placing a finger on his mouth. Even though she tried to hide her worry, Harry could see concern in her eyes, while she waved her wand to summon several potions and salves.

"You are in shock", she said after having cast a few diagnosis charms on him and uncorking two vials. "That's why you are not feeling any pain. Drink this Calming Potion and this Dreamless Sleep Potion, so I can treat you without having to worry about the shock."

Obediently Harry gulped the liquids down and barely had the time to hand them back to Ginny before falling asleep.

"He is asleep minister and I am sure that this can wait for another hour."

Ginny's angry voice penetrated the veil of sleep over Harry's face. His fogged brain took his sweet time understanding them and before he succeeded, the door leading to the bedroom burst open, revealing Scrimgeour, Wright and his livid looking wife. This really woke him up and he was glad to discover that he was at least wearing boxers under the blanket. The thought of facing the minister naked was not the least bit appealing to him. He was surprised to discover that his body did not hurt at all; it was merely a bit sore. Apparently Ginny had taken her healer training very serious indeed. Sincerely hoping that his healed injuries were not visible, he focused his attention to his visitors.

"Minister, what a pleasant surprise", he said, smiling. "Does the ministry so badly need my services that you are personally getting me out of bed? I daresay that I feel most honoured."

Scrimgeour's face was slowly taking the colour of a ripe tomato, while Ginny and Wright looked amused.

"You know exactly why I am here Potter!" spat the minister, rage burning in his eyes. "Last night a muggle village was completely pillaged! More than three hundred muggles died and the survivors said that three devils attacked them and that a man with black, messy hair saved them. You were there and so were the leviathans! This means that you have purposely ignored my orders and that will cost you!"

"I do not have the slightest idea what you are talking about, sir", said Harry, plastering a confused look on his face. "I was on holiday yesterday and I certainly would remember rescuing muggles. There are a lot of men with black hair, maybe it was a neo Death Eater attack. And these devils could merely be illusions cast to create panic in the village. If this is the reason why you are visiting me so early in the morning then I am sorry to disappoint you. I have spent yesterday with my wife and never saw the three leviathans like you ordered me to do."

"You know damn well that you were there, Potter!" snarled the minister, looking ready to burst from rage.

"And I assume that you have witnesses to prove this?" replied Harry, raising an eyebrow.

"No and even if they were able to identify Potter, they were already obliviated", interrupted Wright. "Looks like our visit here is over, don't you think so minister? Auror Potter has told us his side of the story and without prove we have to assume him innocent. If we hurry, we still may be able to grab a bite in the ministry cantina before we have to get working."

His face now changing from beet red to purple, Scrimgeour bolted from the room, nearly bowling Ginny over in the process. Wright shared a smile with Harry, before bowing politely to Ginny and leaving the flat as well.

"Damn it, that was close", said Harry, relief evident in his voice as he heard the minister slamming the door shut. He pushed the blanket away and examined his perfectly healed body. "Nice work, thanks Gin. You are a real lifesaver. Who could have known that you would make such a great healer?"

"Harry James Potter", replied Ginny, doing her best Molly Weasley imitation by placing her hands on her hips while she told him off. "I thought I had told you to be careful. How dare you appearing on our doorstep more dead than alive? It took me more then three hours to stitch you back together! You are extremely lucky to have me around or you would either be dead by now or lying in St. Mungo's, having to answer all kind of questions by your boss! And if you ever do this again, I swear I will…"

Harry, who had known that he was in trouble as soon as she had used his full name, shut her up in the only way he could think of: he walked quickly over to her and kissed her. He felt her relax as his tongue entered her mouth and was pleased to feel her arms embracing him in a fierce hug. A soft moan escaped her throat as their tongue's started their slow dance and for a brief and happy moment time stopped. After what appeared to be an eternity, they broke apart, both of them panting.

"You are not really angry with me, are you?" asked Harry, as he swept her in another hug.

"No", she replied grinning. "But I really had to try knocking some sense in you or you will be scaring the living daylights out of me on a regular basis."

"I would never scare or anger you on purpose", he started, but stopped when he saw her sceptic stare. "Alright, alright, I like to see you angry and I may provoke you sometimes a bit."

"Okay I will let you of the hook for now, Mister Potter, but you still have to show me what happened last night."

"I would rather not, but you will probably skin me alive if I don't. Well in each case, we have fifteen days until the next round of the contest starts."

Together they sat down on the bed Indian-style, facing each other. Harry cupped Ginny's face with both hands, his fingertips resting at her temples. They had done this several times before, always at Ginny's initiative, and this technique of partly fusing each other's minds allowed experiencing memories in a much more intensive way than a pensive, because the emotions connected with a memory were shared as well. However it also held the possibility of dealing severe damage to the minds of the two persons joined. To avoid this, the giver of the memory had to be extremely careful and had to keep the connection between the intellects as thin as possible so it could break in an emergency without getting out of control. However this was very difficult, because both persons experience the memory and many givers found themselves distracted too much by this. Fortunately Harry had the mental discipline required to use this technique, thanks to his meditations and his Legimency training.

"Okay", said Harry. "You know how this works. Look into my eyes and block everything else out. Only focus on them and try to clear your mind. Don't push me back when I try to establish the connection."

Ginny didn't even bother to reply, but simply complied, having enough experience to find it easy to prepare for the fusion of minds. Suddenly, she felt the familiar, feather light touch of Harry's mind on hers and a split second later she found herself relieving his memory.

They stayed entranced in each other for at least half an hour, before cutting the connection. Ginny wordlessly enveloped Harry in a hug, knowing how hard the situation was for him. Harry buried his face in her hair, feeling overwhelmed by the situation and helpless like a newborn child. He did not know how long the solemn moment lasted, but it was interrupted by Hedwig, delivering a letter. Ginny ripped it open and read quickly and huge smile appearing on her face.

"It's from Hermione", she gushed excitedly. "She has finished the Draught!"

Two minutes later Harry and Ginny were already sitting in the living room of Ron's and Hermione's apartment. Hermione had placed a vial filled with colour changing liquid on the table they were sitting on and was currently sitting across from them with Ron at her side. The mood in the room was tense, due to the knowledge of how dangerous the content of the vial was.

"And you are absolutely sure you want to do this Harry?" asked Hermione, her voice full of concern. "Even though you are aware of the risks?"

"I don't think that I have got that much of a choice", answered Harry darkly. "Once again we have the choice to do what's right and what's easy. And once again I will choose what's right although I may die in the process. Honestly after last night's events I am not sure that I can bear another round of this contest without cracking up. Even a sliver of hope here would really help a lot."

"There is no point discussing this", said Ginny softly, squeezing Harry's hand reassuringly. "Hermione give him the potion; he will be able to handle it, trust me."

"I really do not think that this is a great idea, mate", said Ron. "But if anyone will be able to get out of this alive then it is you. After all you fried you-know-who."

"Well alright", said Hermione hesitantly. "Take it. I really hope that I brewed it correctly, the consequences could be awful if I have made a mistake."

"I trust you Hermione", said Harry simply, firmly believing that the sun would be rising in the west before she botched up a potion. "Anything I should know before swallowing this stuff?"

"Yes", replied the bushy-haired witch. "The visions you will be having will be incredibly vivid, because you will feel the emotions connected with them, but they are not real. Keep this in mind all of the time, it will keep you sane. Also I will bind and silence you to prevent you from hurting yourself or others during the trance.

When you have woken up, send us a mental message and we will untie you."

Harry nodded and took a last glance at his two friends and his wife. He could tell that all of them were worrying a great deal about him and that his death or insanity would be devastating for them. Making a mental note to get out of this alive, he grabbed the vial and swallowed the liquid in one large gulp. He barely had time to register that it was completely tasteless and that Hermione had hit him with a body bind and a silencing charm, before the blackness overtook him.

The blackness faded away quickly and left Harry standing in a kaleidoscope of colours, sounds and emotions. The maelstrom was overwhelming and brought his brain to its limits. He experienced every mood he had ever felt at the same time and the result was nearly mind snapping. Harry lost all sense of time. He did not know how long he had taken the potion, he did not know where he was and he had trouble remembering who he was. The only thing distinct in his brain was a female voice whispering "This is not real" all the time. He did not know who she was but he knew that he could trust her. Suddenly one great vision pushed the storm of memories aside.

For the second time in a week Harry found himself standing with three other people in a desert. The four of them stood round a glowing crystal and were obviously arguing about something. He did not understand a word, but he had the feeling that he had witnessed this before. Suddenly the argument stopped and the Harry felt himself touching the crystal. The vision vanished in a white beam and Harry felt excruciating pain in his whole body. At only an instant it faded and blackness overtook him once again.

As he regained consciousness Harry found himself sitting in cross legged on a cool and smooth stone floor of a small pedestal in a great and nearly completely bare hall. Braziers created a flickering twilight in the gigantic room and strange bluish fumes increased the feeling of mystery which shrouded the scene. Harry looked round and discovered that he was not alone in the room. Hundreds of other people were sitting beneath him on the floor of the hall, all in the same position as he was. All of them had their eyes closed and seemed to be muttering softly under their breath. Apparently he was witnessing some mass meditation scene. An emblem carved in a wall caught his eyes. It was a pentagon of five differently coloured crystal shards, one red, one blue, one green, one black and one white. In the middle of it was a small circle of crystal, showing the different elements combined in harmony. Before Harry's drugged brain could even begin to comprehend the significance of the scene, a great double door at the other end of the room and people started to flood into the room.

Or at least they appeared to be people at the first glance. In reality they were ice-covered skeletons wearing tattered black cloaks and they immediately started to tear into the meditating person with their wicked claws. Hundreds died before the inhabitants started to react. Harry felt himself rising and started to wave his hands in a certain pattern, anger and shock cursing through his veins. A wave of energy shot out of his fingertips and raced through the room. It did not deal any harm to the living, but caused the undead to dissolve into ash. Even though this single attack had vanquished thousands of skeletons, even more still remained and continued pouring into the room.

Harry felt himself casting another spell and suddenly the room was gone. Instead he and the survivors of the massacre found themselves standing on a high plateau in the desert looking down on a large city. Pillars of smoke rose from it and parts seemed already to be aflame. They were to far away to clearly see who was fighting whom but it looked like everyone was fighting everyone. Harry saw skeletons fight civilians, saw crystalline knight s fight walking palm trees and normal people slaughtering each other. He could only guess how many lives were lost every second, but it were many. Desperation started to rise in him and somehow he felt that everything that he had been working for had been in vain. He fell to his knees as bile started to rise in his throat and screamed out his anger in the smoky sky.

Harry had a nice view of the village and the battle raging around him, but this was not surprising, after all he was flying nearly a hundred feet in the air. Despite any similar experiences he had made during the last few days, this memory was different and much older. Instead of a British village in a lush forest, he was floating near a small settlement made of loam huts, which had been mantled with limestone. A large river was flowing nearby and the desert filled the whole horizon. This somehow peaceful scenery was roughly disturbed by the fireballs and crystal shrapnel flying through the air and by the crunching sound of countless feet marching on the hot sand.

Summoned creatures of Crosis, Anhur and Shai swarmed the village and transformed it into a hellhole. The normal inhabitants had taken refuge in their houses and until now none of it had crumbled, much to Harry's delight. However he realized that it would not stay this peaceful for a long time. Deciding to move the fight away from the innocents, he shouted a few words in a strange language and was more than a bit irritated that no one reacted. Knowing that the three others could hear him, he decided to enforce his decision a bit. Peeking through the chaos of the battle, he spotted them. Apparently Crosis and Shai were ganging Anhur, because both of them attack him at the same time. The brute, however, was able to avoid both Crosis' Deathball and Shai's crystalline lance, but he seemed to be infuriated at their teamwork. Shouting something in this strange language, Anhur gathered energy. A red globe roughly the size of a football appeared in his hands and he hurled it directly into the heart of the village below him, where most of the fighting took place. For a few moments nothing happened. Then, with an earth shaking rumble, an earth peak started to grow. It grew almost twenty feet high, before splitting at the top and spitting enormous amounts of ash and lava. Anything within the village was instantly incinerated.

Harry felt himself flying away from the ravaged settlement but then the vision changed. Suddenly he was standing in front of Anhur on a large mountain, a big, bluish globe of energy in his hands. Just as he was staring to recognize more details of the scenery, he was already throwing the globe at the brute and hit him straight in the face. There was a large flash of light and he was gone.

Harry was floating over ice cap topped water, a chilly breeze pulling at his clothes. Crosis had not arrived yet, but he was already moving his hands in a very complicated pattern. The blue globe appeared in his hand, roughly the size of a peanut. He knew that it had to be at least four inches in diameter before it would be ready, so he continued channelling energy into it. Just as it was completed, Crosis appeared, a frown etched into his still human face. Before he had the time to ask any questions, Harry had already hit him with the spell.

The dim light of the cave made it hard to see anything more than a foot away from the glowing blue orb in his hands. Directly in front of him was Shai standing, her eyes, which were still brown at the time, filled with confusion. Without explaining the situation to her Harry felt himself lowering his lips to her and giving her a tender kiss. After a few seconds he pulled away and hit her in the gut with his spell. She disappeared like the others had and he left the cave, silent tears running down his cheeks.

And suddenly as quickly as it had begun it was over. Harry found himself sitting in a chair, unable to move a muscle thanks to Hermione's body bind charm. However one thing was new: the tons of new memories and knowledge in his brain. Calling out silently to Ginny, so she would free him, Harry allowed himself a brief sliver of hope.


	8. Hatching Plans

Less then thirty seconds later, Harry was sitting on Ron and Hermione's couch, now once again free to move and to talk. His three companions had been riddling him with question from the moment on they had stormed into the room, but he had told them that he needed a few minutes to sort through the new sea of knowledge in his brain. After a few minutes he had finally found the information he had been looking for.

"I have found out how Tourach wanted to stop the contest forever." he said, beaming. "Crosis' assumption that they were trapped in artificial pocket planes was correct. Tourach knew that all four of them were immortal and that he was not strong enough to defeat one of the others and certainly not all three of them. So he designed these fascinating planes. They keep any life form trapped by not transferring it completely to them, but only to sixty percent. So the victim is part of his origin plane and the new one at the same time. This renders it unable to move, raise power and even to think."

"A force field prevents it from getting damaged by the chaos which exists between the planes and also stabilizes the pocket plane. However this requires gigantic amounts of energy. Therefore the force field taps the energy of the trapped being to keep itself up. Naturally only very powerful creatures with very fast energy regeneration are able to feed the field forever and that's why this method does not work on ordinary mortals."

Astonished silence followed his explanation. Ron was wondering what the heck had Harry had just said, Ginny had decided to leave the thinking about this new information to Hermione, after all she was the brain of the group and instead thought about what her husband had probably seen during his trip. Hermione had divulged Harry's information and was in the middle of calculating how much energy was required to create the artificial planes.

"So he trapped the three combatants one by one, right?" asked Ginny after a while, finally breaking the silence that had settled on the room.

"Yes." replied Harry. "During a combat pause he met with each of them at a forsaken place and always was able to cast the trapping spell on the unsuspecting leviathans. They usually were too surprised to do anything to save them."

"But why did this Tourach guy freak out this badly that he created this complicated plan?" asked Ron. "This sounds like obscene amounts of work were necessary to develop this strange spell."

Despite the seriousness of the conversation Harry found himself smiling at his best mates' statement: only someone like Ron could call hard work obscene.

"I am not quite sure myself." responded Harry, after thinking for a few seconds. "The memories are kind of disarranged and sometimes blurry. I can only say that he hated it if innocents died due to the contest. I think he really got mad after Anhur incinerated a whole village during a battle without any particular reason to do so. Whatever it was, it must have been huge, after all he even trapped Shai and they had some kind of relationship going on."

"That's all really interesting." said Ginny, impatiently. "But we still do not know how to stop them. Why did the spell fail the first time anyway?"

"I guess I know why." replied Hermione, looking more than a bit pleased with herself. "He must have ignored the Whiteman-Effect!"

"And would you please be so kind and enlighten us poor people with our undersized brain capacity what the heck this is?" said Ron impatiently after Hermione had stared at the three of them expectantly.

Hermione pursed her lips at her boyfriend's rudeness, but answered him nevertheless.

"Robert Whiteman was a genius! He wrote several disquisitions on the process of creating artificial planes and planes within planes, the so-called pocket planes, during the thirties of the past century. He even calculated how much magical energy would be required to create such a new plane, but failed to find a way how to stabilize it. Of course all of his work was theoretical and is not proven, but it may be helpful."

"So far so good, but what about this effect?" asked Harry.

"I am coming to this." replied Hermione smiling. "Whiteman's theory was that the empty space between the planes, which would be filled by the creation of a new one, was not brimmed with no energy, but with anti-energy. He believed that if an energy quant and an anti-energy quant meet they would neutralize each other. So to create a new plane, one had to neutralize all of the anti-energy first, before one could actually form it. Tourach seems to have ignored this effect and therefore his plane was not complete. The anti-energy absorbed a part of his energy and due to this the plane was not completely formed and thereby not balanced. So it was only a matter of time before the plane collapsed, despite the constant energy supply."

"So all we have to do is to cast Tourach's spell again, but with more power behind it?" asked Harry, surprised that the solution seemed to be so simple.

"No that won't work." said Hermione pensively. "We would have to overwork it, so it neutralized the anti-energy first, before creating the plane, but unfortunately we do not have the arithmancy code of the spell and I am sure that it is impossible to create such complicated magic out of the blue."

Gloomy silence settled on the room for a few seconds, before Harry started beaming, Hermione's explanation having stirred a memory in him.

"No need to be so depressed, just get me lots of paper and a few pens and I will write the code down."

"You remember it?" asked Hermione, wide eyed. "Oh this is going to be so interesting, just imaging how much we will be able to learn!"

Ginny and Ron rolled their eyes at her unchanging studious behaviour and quickly summoned heaps of paper and pens on the kitchen table. Harry got up from the couch and walked quickly in the kitchen, as though he feared the sudden loss of his new found knowledge. He sat down, furrowed his brows in a look of outmost concentration and started writing. Quickly a complicated arithmancy code started to form, a tangle of numbers and white spaces, which did not make any sense to anyone not trained in the subject. His friends looked over his shoulder, Hermione mesmerised at the code, Ginny worried because Harry was not writing in his own handwriting and Ron completely nonplussed at the whole thing.

After nearly three hours of writing, Harry was finished. More than forty pages of parchment were now ingrained with the code of an ancient spell and Hermione's eyes were shining brightly with ecstasy. She picked the sheets up and gently brushed over them with her hand. Ron had stopped watching Harry writing a long time ago and was now readying a Quidditch magazine on the couch, while Ginny was looking at Harry with a frown on her face and chewing on her bottom lip.

"I think it may take some time to sort through these." said Hermione brightly. "But at least it will be fun!"

Just as Ron and Ginny burst out laughing, Harry fell out of his chair, unconscious.

The soft whispers of concerned voices gently penetrated the veil of sleep, which had enshrouded Harry. His head hurt. In fact he could not remember ever having a headache this bad. Heck, even the enormous hangover he had had after his stag night was nothing compared to this! His whole body felt as heavy as lead and he had a strange metallic taste in his mouth. But what disturbed him most that he could not remember or imagine what he had done to be in this state. And to make things even worse, he was not lying in his own bed! The room around him was not even vaguely familiar, but this could be the result of both him not wearing his glasses or his syrupy flow of thoughts. Precisely in this moment a hand brushed against his face.

Auror instincts kicking in immediately, Harry propelled himself up from the bed in an instant. Cursing himself for not realising that someone had entered the room and still not able to see the attacker clearly in the dimly lit bedroom, he sent a wandless Impedimenta in the general direction of the intruder. A dull thud, accompanied by a yelp of surprise followed his move. Just as Harry started to close in, an angry voice changed everything.

"Damn it Harry, what the hell do you think you are doing?" said the intruder and Harry immediately realized that he had just attacked his wife.

"Ginny!" he gasped and was at her side in an instant. "I am so sorry, are you hurt? Can I somehow help you?"

"No, I do not think that I am hurt, but you could really do me a few favours." she replied sounding irritated, but a bit mollified as well at his caring attitude. "First of all you could tell me why the hell you attacked me and what's going on with you."

"Sorry about that." replied Harry sheepishly, now finding the whole episode rather funny after discovering that she was unharmed. "I woke up feeling disorientated, hurting and still can not remember a thing. Then you touched me and I somehow felt threatened. Auror training kicked in and I attacked you on pure instinct. Where are we anyway?"

Ginny groggily got up, picked Harry's glasses up from the nightstand on which they had been sitting and handed them to him. He slipped them on and suddenly realized that they were sitting in Ron's and Hermione's bedroom, which they had shown Ginny and him when they had given them the tour shortly after moving into the flat. It suddenly made sense that he did not recognize it, one time was not nearly enough to be able to recognize a place with a headache and without glasses.

"Whatever happened?" he asked Ginny. "My head feels like someone was trying to crack it open with a sledgehammer."

Sighing Ginny motioned him to sit next to her on the bed and told her about him taking the potion and what they had found out. Harry felt the pain in his brain deflate a bit and suddenly started to remember parts of the previous evening.

"Is Hermione already brooding over the spell?" asked Harry, rubbing his temple to clear the last bit of the pain away.

"She was, but Ron and she are just now getting something to eat, its nine o'clock in the morning after all."

Suddenly Harry realized that Ginny was only wearing a nightgown, which seemed to be Hermione's because it was too big to be Ginny's. Praying that Ron and Hermione were taking their time, he captured her lips in a searing kiss.

A week later, Ron was coming home later from Quidditch training. His mind had not really been on goalkeeping, he had to think about the leviathans all the time. While he had not witnessed their destructiveness first hand, he had read the unofficial Ministry reports Harry had organized them and what he had read made his blood run cold. Combined with his best friend's stories about them Ron had come to the decision that he would prefer getting castrated with a cold butter knife over ever crossing these things. He shuddered when he thought about what the titans would do to Harry if he failed to entomb them again. The fact that all their hope was placed on an ancient and faulty spell, did not improve the situation at all.

Due to his absent mind, his performance today had been awful and the coach had made him do extra work long after the other members of the team had long left the pitch. Right now he was entering his flat, hungry, exhausted and slightly depressed.

"Honey, I am home." he called, while slipping out of his shoes and putting down his sports bag. His brow furred when he realized that the rest of the apartment was shrouded in darkness and completely silent. Cursing softly under his breath, he slipped his wand out of his pocket and steeled himself for the worst.

He tiptoed deeper into the flat, every nerve in his body on edge. He entered the kitchen first, standing stock still for a moment. Nothing. No one was breathing in there except for him. Sighing in relief, Ron mentally kicked himself for not having learned to feel other people's magical auras like Harry had. He could have told Ron in an instant if any intruder was in the flat. But Ron did not have this luxury and had to do it the hard way. He did not even the option to apparate to Harry to enrol his help, because time could be crucial here. As silently as possible, Ron crept to the other door of the kitchen and into the living room.

The unexpected brightness of it blinded him immediately after he had entered it. Knowing that he was an easy target at the moment, Ron cast a shield charm and rolled sideward to hide behind a flower pot. His heart was hammering like mad and he was steeling himself for the attack, which he knew would follow soon. But to his complete surprise nothing happened. No one screamed, no one cast a spell, no one moved. The silence in the apartment was nearly absolute. Confused Ron decided to risk a glimpse and with his now light accustomed eyes finally found out what was going on.

Hermione was sitting on a desk in the living room, which was littered with an abundance of parchment, sleeping with her head on the hard wood. The powerful muggle lamp on the desk was shining brightly, bathing the room in hard, artificial light. Sighing with relief and now feeling slightly silly for having reacted in this way, Ron pocketed his wand again and slowly walked over to his wife. Her bushy hair was even more tangled than usual and she had ink stains over most of her clothes and even on her face. He took a short glimpse at the papers lying on the desk in front of her. They were filled with endless columns of numbers and Ron guessed that she had worked on the imprisonment spell again. Unwilling to let her spent the night in a chair; Ron gently scooped her up in his arms, careful not to wake her.

A few minutes later, he had carried her to their bedroom and laid her down on the bed. She was heavier than she looked, but of course he would never tell her. Girls were a bit touchy on the subject of their weight, even if they looked good. Ron was not able to understand this at all, but he had long ago abandoned all hope that he would ever understand the female sex. Ginny and Harry seemed to understand each other perfectly and he briefly wondered how they did this. Knowing Harry and his abundance of strange abilities they had probably forged some kind of magical bond or something similar. Looking on the sprawled form of his sleeping wife on the bed, he decided to return to the task at hand.

For a while he contemplated about if he should simply transfigure her clothes into pyjamas or undress and change her manually. Smiling, he finally decided for the latter, considering it a lot more fun. He started with slowly pulling off her white shocks, leaving her dressed in tight blue jeans and a white tee shirt. Just as he was grabbing hold of the delicate belt keeping her trousers in place, she stirred and her eyes fluttered open.

"Ron." she said, her voice thick with sleep. "You are home. What are you doing?"

"Undressing you." he replied sheepishly. Hermione's eyebrows shot up so high that they were about to disappear in her hair, so he decided to quickly continue explaining. "You fell asleep in a chair on your desk and when I came home and found you there, I decided to bring you to bed. And just as I was about to undress you, you woke up. You were working on the spell again, were you?"

"Yes." replied Hermione. "And I think I am nearly done with rewriting it. Even though there might be a mistake in line three thousand forty-one… I will check it right now!"

She jumped up from the bed and tried to leave the room, but Ron was stopping her by blocking the doorframe, his face grim.

"What do you think you are doing Ron?" asked Hermione irritably. "I told you I had to check this right now. Let me do this!"

"No." he replied simply.

"What do you think you are doing?" she said angrily. "This spell is the only way to stop the leviathans! Harry needs it and we have to help him! He is counting on us for god's sake!"

"I know."

"Then why the hell are you keeping me from helping him?"

"Because you won't be any help if you crack up about this!" replied Ron angrily, his own temper getting the better of him. "You have been working for how long on this bloody spell today? Four hours? Six hours? Eight hours? You fell asleep fully clothed, damn it! The last time this happened you were in year three and took all of Hogwart's subjects! You even have ink stains on your face and THAT never happened before! Normally you are the incarnation of order and right now your desk is completely in disarray! For god's sake Hermione, you have bitten off more than you can chew and I will be damned if I allow you to crack up over this. Even you are not omniscient and it is no shame that you are not!"

Hermione was completely stunned at his words. As the silence stretched between them, Ron mentally prepared them for the storm he knew would follow. They had billions of arguments before but he knew that this could be huge. However he was sticking to his opinion and was not going to give in here. His surprise could not have been greater as Hermione pulled him into a tight hug instead of shouting at him.

"Oh Ron I am so sorry." Hermione said tearfully, clinging to him so tightly that he had problems breathing. "You are only trying to help me and I snap at you for doing so. I am such a horrible person! I should have known that you only had the best intentions!"

Now she started to sob and Ron's joy that she had admitted the he had been right, something that had never ever before, was dampened significantly. He really hated to deal with emotional people and crying girls were ten times worse than crying blokes. To make matters even worse, he was crap at this feeling stuff and had absolutely no idea what to do. What would Harry, Hermione or Ginny do in this situation? Fortunately he had a brainwave before this nightly encounter could become even more awkward.

"Hush love, everything is alright." he said in a soothing voice, praying that it would work. "You are just overworked and have a serious lack of sleep. Let's get to bed okay? Everything will be okay tomorrow. All you need is some rest. You will complete the spell tomorrow; after all you are the smartest witch around. Everything is alright; no more sorrow, no more tears okay?"

Hermione's only answer was a muffled okay, but Ron took heart in the fact that she had stopped crying. Once again, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her over to their bed. He gently laid her down and transfigured both of their clothes into pyjamas with a flick of his wand.

"Hold me Ron." she whispered so softly, that he barely caught her words. Smiling he climbed into the bed as well, tucked both of them in and wrapped his arms around her. Her breathing was soon becoming deeper and more regular and Ron enjoyed the feeling of her soft body against his and the knowledge that he could bring peace to her troubled mind. Soon both of them were sound asleep.

Sh

Ron awoke with a start as he felt something wet and soft trail over his torso, teasing his nipples as it did so. Even though he had opened his eyes, the room was pitch black. He tried to move but his arms and legs did not even budge. And suddenly enlightenment hit him, as the last bit of sleep was washed away by the adrenaline washing into his blood. Holy fuck! He was shackled to his bed, naked and blindfolded! A thousand naughty images flooded his brain and the arousal mingled with his helplessness and fear formed an intoxicating cocktail. Despite his total lack of control, Ron found himself getting rock hard.

"Who's there?" he asked, hating how shaky and frightened his voice sounded. He prayed that it was not some kind of pervy guy living out his kinks with him. Fortunately he was lying on his back so it had to be a woman, right? Well as soon as the other person in the room would answer him, he would know. In the meantime he tried to find out with what exactly he was shackled. It felt soft and silky, almost fragile. Maybe he could get free if he yanked hard enough.

"Don't even think about it." said a husky female voice into his ear. "They may only be silken scarves, but they are charmed to be absolutely unbreakable. Just lie back and relax. You are going to enjoy it."

For a brief moment relief flooded Ron at least he was getting bound and shagged by a woman, but still he found it hard to relax. He still did not know who the woman was, she sounded a bit like Hermione, but he had overheard Ginny talking in a similar voice to Harry. Sweet Merlin, what was he thinking about? Never ever in the whole world was the femme fatal in the room his sweet innocent baby sister. Ginny would never do this, would she?

Before Ron could ponder this thought any longer, his musings were pleasantly interrupted. A warm, nude and definitely female body pressed against his and his lips were captured in a passionate kiss. A tongue was staring to run along his lower lip, begging for entrance and he happily granted it. The girl tasted of peppermint, not of lemons with a trace of something bitter like Hermione. The thought that he was getting forced to cheat on his wife blazed through his mind briefly, but was forgotten quickly as their tongues started to dance. Every coherent notion was washed away; he only felt her tongue massaging his, her hair tickling his torso and his cock pocking her stomach. He could not stand it, he needed more!

As though the little minx head read his mind, she pulled away. He groaned as he felt her leaving the bed and cursed softly. His cock was throbbing and he was already ready for release and desperately hoped that it would be soon. His surprise was complete, when he felt a hot, sticky liquid pool onto his chest.

"What the…?" he managed to say, before his lips were claimed once again, while one of the girls hand spread to spread the liquid over his whole torso. Suddenly the fluid turned cool and hard, mantling his skin. Ron gasped at the sudden change of temperature and texture. Before he had the chance to say anything, the girl abandoned his mouth and started to nibble the now hard liquid away.

Ron moaned as he felt her teeth and tongue grazing his skin, while she was eating his hull. This was the most delicious kind of torture he had ever experienced. By now he was ready to burst and would have ravaged her on the spot if he had been able to move. He was harder than he had even been in his life and he was completely mad with desire. Suddenly he felt something hard slip between his lips and the girl's ministrations stopped for a moment.

"Eat it." she whispered into his ear, before kissing his neck and Ron happily obeyed. Chocolate. Dark Chocolate. Damn. He was getting bathed in hot, dark chocolate. And he enjoyed it!

"Do you want me to go on?" purred the girl saucily in his ear.

"Gods, yes!" he cried and was rewarded with another wave of pleasure as she complied with his wish. A few incredible minutes later his chest was clean once again, and Ron was left gasping for breath. Before he had any chance to recover, he felt the same hot liquid enveloping his cock. Ron thought he would die as she applied the same treatment on his cock, which she had already used on his chest. The combination of her hot tongue, her teeth, the chocolate and her breath was mind blowing and Ron came almost immediately after she had lowered her mouth to him.

She eagerly sucked him completely in her hot mouth and swallowed all of his hot cum. Ron strained against his shackles while he came, before collapsing on the bed, stars exploding in front of his eyes. However the girl was not finished with him. She continued eating him until he was completely hard again. Ron still did not know who was shagging him silly, but he could care less at the moment. All he wanted was to cum again, preferably inside of her.

A small hand took hold of his shaft and guided him into her dripping wet velvet softness. He sighed in relief as he entered her and had barely time to adjust before she started to ride him furiously. Oh how he wished to see her breasts bouncing up and down, her hand probably touching herself and his own penis sliding in and out of her! Suddenly he felt her walls tightening around him and she came with a scream. Ron followed her over the edge and felt himself exploding inside of her.

For the second time on this morning, Ron saw stars. He could not belief how good this had felt. The girl and he lay together for a while, still joined, no one saying a word. Then the blindfolded was removed from his face. He stared into Hermione's face, gaping at her like a fish out of the water.

"Hermione." he said weakly. "How…why…?"

"This was your reward for yesterday." she replied, grinning impishly, untying his shackles with a flick of her wand. "I will meet you in the shower, do not take too long."

With these words she left the room, leaving her totally flabbergasted husband behind.

Three days later, six am:

Harry was lying half asleep in his bed, his own nude body snuggled closely to Ginny's. He made no move to stand up; instead he savoured the feeling of the silken bedclothes against his bare skin, the soft tickling of his wife's hair against his face, her flowery smell and her soft, porcelain skin against his. His mind was blissfully blank and he welcomed the change. Rarely he had felt so at peace with the world and wished this moment to last forever. However this instant of peace was going to be rudely interrupted.

Harry had given a few of his friends and other persons he cared about some emergency portkeys, which would teleport them directly into his flat, bypassing all wards and protection spells. To prevent abuse he had enchanted them not to work if the user had malicious intentions and gave each of them a different activation word. One of these portkeys was used in this very moment, bringing an unexpected visitor to the Potters this early in the morning.

The door to the bedroom burst open with a bang and a woman stormed into the room. Before Harry's fogged brain had the opportunity to react, she had already yanked the bedcovers away, revealing Ginny and himself.

Alright, now he really was awake.

Hands instinctively flying downwards to hide his more intimate parts, Harry looked in the shock at the woman with a heart shaped face and long black locks.

"Damn it, Tonks." he said, irritated. "What the hell is going on?"

"I do not have time to talk." she replied breathlessly. "You have to come; Scrimgeour has launched an attack on the leviathans!"


	9. Consequences

"He didn't" said Harry completely stunned at Tonks' statement. "Not even Scrimgeour can be _that_ stupid. How do you know about this anyway?"

"Kingsley has sent me an owl a few minutes ago. I guess that the minister did not inform me because he knew that I would tell you immediately. He has made it quite clear in the past that he does not want you in the picture. I think that he even chose to attack today because it is your free day. But listen to me, we really have to go and help them." replied Tonks in a rush, impatience evident in her voice.

"But why the hell would Scrimgeour order such a suicide mission?" asked Harry confused. The minister certainly was no fool and he had years of battle experience to guide him. "Unless…"

"Unless he's very sure that he will win." said Ginny pensively. "And that means that he is…"

"… terribly underestimating the leviathans, exactly." finished Harry, his face grim. "Damn, we have to help them! Where are my pants?"

"Accio Clothes." said Tonks rolling her eyes. Instantly a heap of clothes surged out of the wardrobes and landed unceremoniously on the floor. "Honestly Harry you are one of the most powerful wizards alive and do not think of a simple summoning spell. I daresay that I am disappointed."

"You are so funny." replied Harry sarcastically, while pulling on his boxers. "Where is the battle anyway?"

"Kingsley included a portkey in his letter, so we do not have to worry about this. It probably started half an hour ago. Get ready you two, time is running out!"

"Two?" asked Harry, buckling his belt. "Ginny won't accompany us, this is much too dangerous."

"I can take care of myself, thank you very much." snapped Ginny, irritated at her husband's protectiveness. "I am a mediwitch in my last year of training, you will need me to tend the wounded, and so I will come with you. I do not have any intentions of getting killed; therefore I won't do anything stupid. Don't be a prat Harry; we do not have the time to argue!"

"All right." replied Harry grimly, not at all pleased with the outcome of the discussion. "Let's get on with it then."

As soon as Ginny and Harry were dressed and had grabbed their wands plus some healing potions, Tonks produced an old boot out of her pocket. Harry and Ginny touched it and suddenly all of them were portkeyed away.

Harry, Ginny and Tonks hit the ground hard and struggled to remain standing. Once again Harry found himself standing at the entrance of the canyon, which he had visited so few weeks ago. A feeling of dread rose in his stomach as he remember which great impact this unholy place had had on his life. They were completely alone, only the great number of footprints indicating that something big was going on. A chilly wind was blowing causing the few trees around to moan and to creak in protest. The aura of disaster, which shrouded the place, was enhanced by the thick grey fog covering the whole crevice.

Harry did not like the situation one bit, the lack of reinforcements or other supporting troops waiting at the entrance greatly disturbed him. Either the minister was so confident that he did not bring any or they were already involved in the battle. He could sense that the fog was magical in nature and he strongly suspected that it was one of Crosis' combat tricks. In each case it disabled his ability to feel magical auras, everything in the canyon felt completely the same.

"Any more information Tonks?" he asked, wanting to know as much as possible before joining combat. "Did Kingsley tell you if all the leviathans would be attacked here? Or are they launching three separate attacks at the same time?"

"I don't know Harry." she replied, biting her bottom lip in nervousness. "Kingsley only told me to get you and to use the portkey, which would bring us directly to the battlefield. I don't like this at all, it is much too quiet."

Just as Harry opened his mouth to reply a person burst through the fog zone, slamming into Harry, causing both of them to fall to the ground before he had any time to react. Tonks and Ginny had their wands out in an instant, but lowered them again as soon as they had gotten a glimpse of the attacker's tattered clothes. He was a high-Auror! And judging by the shaved black head he was no one but Kingsley Shacklebolt himself!

"Kingsley! Thank god!" cried Tonks, relieved at finding her old friend so soon. However her relief turned into shock as soon as she had gotten a closer look at him. His Auror robe was nothing more than rags, reduced to tatters by some great force. Tonks knew how resistant these garments were and she considered it a miracle that Kingsley had survived a blast, which had ravaged his clothes that badly. Through the countless holes in his clothes she could see all kinds of injuries: slashing, stabbing and bludgeoning wounds, burns and even frostbites.

"Quick, help me turning him around!" shouted Ginny, switching into professional healer mode. Harry complied and pushed him as gently as possible away from him. Tonks grabbed Kingsley's shoulders and together they managed to lower him to the ground gently. Even though he was only semiconscious, he still screamed in pain as his back contacted with the ground.

"Stand back!" ordered Ginny as she waved her wand in a complicated pattern over the injured Auror. Her brows furrowed in concentration and she opened one of her potion vials. Pouring the content down Kingsley's throat, she spoke up again. "This potion will stabilize him for the moment. I will take him to St. Mungo's and will return with more healers as soon as possible. I am not sure if he will make it, he is really badly injured."

In precisely this moment, Kingsley's eyes popped open. After drawing a very rugged breath he managed to speak.

"All dead… all dead… fire… leviathans…"

Five minutes later, Ginny had apparated away with Kingsley, promising to return with a group of healers as soon as possible. After seeing Kingsley's condition and hearing his ragged statements Harry had the distinct feeling that only a group of gravediggers would be needed, but of course he did not point that out to his wife. Tonks and him had decided to enter the canyon, hoping that the fight was long over before they got anywhere near the leviathans. Harry still wondered if all of them had been in this canyon at the time of the attack or if they had been attacked separately. Unfortunately Kingsley had fallen unconscious before they could ask him any further questions and Ginny had told them not to expect him to wake up anytime soon. Hoping to find at least one more survivor they had entered the impenetrable damp white veil, which shielded the whole canyon from view.

To say that it was unnerving to walk through the mist would be the understatement of the century. The silence was almost absolute, only the cracking of their shoes on the strange ground, which appeared to be burned and frozen at the same time, disturbed it sometimes. It was cold in the canyon, an icy wind and the dampness of the fog forming what felt like a hull of ice on their bodies. At first they had called out when they had found a body, but soon they ignored the dead, there simply were too many of them and focused on finding someone alive. Suddenly Harry stopped dead in his tracks, causing Tonks to run into his back. On the ground in front of them lay the corpses of three Aurors, one of Shai's crystalline knights and one of Crosis' ice zombies. To make matters even worse, a small puddle of lava was glowing not far away and you do not have to be a genius to know who had created it.

"This is really bad." said Harry, his voice reduced to a hoarse whisper and icy dread filling his stomach. "All of the leviathans were here. That means the chances of finding anyone still alive are less then zero."

"But I thought they could not stand each other." said Tonks, brows furrowed in confusion. "Why are they now hanging out together?"

"I was wondering about the same thing, it does not make any sen…" started Harry as he suddenly remembered something. "Now I remember! They have to renew the challenge between each combat round. This is very important for the contest and it is crucial that they are not disturbed…"

Tonks gulped. "And what happens if they are disturbed? By an attack for example?" she asked.

"Then they will defend themselves and deliver retribution for the deed…" replied Harry tonelessly.

It took a few seconds for this information to sink in and suddenly Tonks and Harry found themselves staring at each other.

"Oh no." they said before apparating away.

"This can't be happening." said Harry, completely shell shocked. He and Tonks were standing in front of the visitor entrance to the Ministry of magic, after not having been able to apparate into the Ministry directly. Or at least they were standing in front of what remained of the entrance. The old, broken phone booth had vanished, as had most of the street where it had stood. A gigantic crater was all that remained. It was immeasurably deep and nearly one hundred fifty feet long. Harry was very sure that it led directly to the lobby of the Ministry, which probably had been reduced to dust by whatever blast had created the crevice. Thick, black smoke was shrouding the scene, rising from the tunnel as well as from the scattered, burning ruins of the muggle homes, which had been destroyed by it as well.

People were milling around, trying to tend the countless wounded, searching the ruins for any survivors, trying to bring order into the gigantic chaos or simply standing around and glaring at the bizarre scene in disbelief.

"Do you think we should try to get down there?" asked Tonks, pointing at the crevice. "Not the whole Ministry seems to be destroyed; maybe we can find any survivors."

"Anyone alive in it will have apparated away by now." replied Harry, his voice barely a whisper. "If anyone survived. I would not be surprised if they hunted down everyone."

"Then what?" snapped Tonks, irritated at his lack of action in this desperate situation.

"I DON'T KNOW!" shouted Harry back. "This has never happened before and I really don't know how long it will take until their blood thirst is satisfied. The arbiter has no power in this situation so all we can do is waiting and trying to minimise the damage. Stop wanting to play the hero Tonks, it won't change anything and it frankly gets on my nerves!"

Harry was already sorry for shouting at her after the words had left his mouth. His helplessness was driving him mad and he felt guilty for not having taken care of the leviathans before this could happen. His brain knew that he could not have done anything to prevent it, but his heart was not convinced at all. He was worried about all the people working in the Ministry, especially for Hermione, but he knew that this matter was far out of his reach. Well at least he could correct some wrongs of the morning.

Just as he opened his mouth to apologize to Tonks a gigantic explosion occurred several blocks away. Harry noticed that muggles did not hear a thing and this could only mean one thing: Diagon Alley was under attack as well!

Harry buried his face in his hands, the exhaustion of the day finally taking its toll. It was three o'clock in the afternoon, more than nine hours after Tonks had burst into his bedroom and he was sitting in one of the various waiting rooms of St. Mungo's. He took a deep breath and smelled this unique hospital smell, a slightly nauseating mixture of cleaning and disinfecting charms, fear and distress mixed with a tiny sliver of hope. He hated hospitals, having spent so many hours in the hospital ward in Hogwarts. Glancing at the bloody makeshift bandage tightly wound around his right biceps, he was once again wondering when someone would finally take care of him. Even though his injury was not life threatening, it was still very painful. Knowing that his chances of getting healed soon were less then zero in the cramped hospital, he leaned back in his chair and wondered why on earth he had even bothered to leave his bed this morning.

He and Tonks had arrived in Diagon Alley only a few minutes after the explosion. It had turned out that the explosion had been the spontaneous eruption of a magical volcano, which had most likely been summoned by Anhur directly next to Gringrotts. It had been more than ninety feet high and had spewed tons of ash, rocks and lava. Hundreds of people had died as the large goblin-run bank was buried under the molten stone and Harry could only guess how many more had suffocated due to the toxic fumes the volcano had set free or had been buried under their collapsing houses.

With the Ministry destroyed the few people actually able and willing to help had been hopelessly unorganized and extremely badly equipped. Harry and Tonks had spent hours of apparating injured witches and wizards to safety, protected by Bubblehead Charms from the ash and the smoke. They had even tried to freeze the lava, but only had been able to slow it down a little. At least the magical barrier around Diagon Alley prevented it from flowing into a muggle neighbourhood. To their relief the leviathans had seemed satisfied with the destruction and had not intervened in any way. Still the Alley had not been saveable. They had apparated away shortly before it was completely flooded with lava together with the other helpers. They had saved countless of people but an immeasurable number of deaths had occurred as well.

That had been almost two hours ago. They had spent the time waiting in St. Mungo's all of them injured. Tonks had been hit on the head by a few stones of a crumbling building and had nearly been burned to death by the advancing magma. Harry had barely been able to pull her out of harms way and had suffered some cuts and bruise by doing so. Also a drop of the molten stone had hit his right biceps and, even though he had vanished it immediately, had left a nasty bleeding wound. Currently only seriously injured persons were receiving medical aid and Harry knew that he was nowhere near the top of the priority list. Tonks had already been treated and was spending the next two days in the hospital. He was neither allowed to visit her nor to leave the hospital without having been checked by a healer. He still had not heard anything from Hermione and this only increased his anger at being stuck. Pushing all thoughts of finding the healer in charge and giving him an earful about the situation from his mind, Harry started to use a meditation technique to ease his troubled mind. Five minutes later he was sound asleep.

Harry snapped awake in an instant and found himself lying on a mattress in a small and dark office. A desk and a file cabinet were the only other furniture and a single candle burned on the desk, creating a flickering twilight. Somehow it seemed to produce more darkness than light. Harry furrowed his brow in confusion; how had he gotten here? His instinct should have woken him up when anyone touched him or even stepped near him. Either he was more injured than he had thought or whoever had moved him was very stealthy and smart. The room was strangely blurred even though his contacts were unable to be removed without his help. Just as he wanted to get up from the mattress, the door of the room opened softly and a reddish blur entered.

"Ah Harry, you are awake." it said in a very familiar voice. "How are you feeling?"

"Ginny?" Harry asked, still unable to see properly.

"Did you expect someone else?" she replied and Harry knew that see was raising one eyebrow even though he could not see it.

"No, I guess I am only pleasantly surprised." he returned, grinning. "I feel fine, a bit tired though. And I can't see properly."

Ginny nodded. "That's a side effect of the potion we gave you. It puts the drinker to sleep and helps healing wounds and regenerating spent energy. Don't worry, in one hour you will be up and around again.

"That's good. Where am I by the way?" asked Harry, gesturing vaguely at the room around him.

"This den is my very own office, welcome to my realm." she replied with a serious face, bowing extra deep to emphasize her point.

Despite the horrible day, Harry could not help laughing; Ginny's acting skills were simply hilarious.

"Oh I feel so honoured by being allowed to stay here my fair lady." he replied, having decided to continue their little game for a while. "But would you be so kind and evaluate how I have come here?"

"Well good sir I am afraid that you despite your greatness and bravery have been a bit exhausted by the day's events." she answered, her eyes dancing with mischief. "You fell asleep in a chair and I decided that it would be best to bring you here to take care of your every need and fortunately you were not making any problems."

Looking into each others eyes they burst out laughing, feeling the weight of the day slipping away.

"You see?" Ginny managed to gasp between fits of laughter. "Laughing is the best medicine!"

"You are absolutely right." replied Harry, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes. His vision had become much sharper during the last few minutes and by now he could really see Ginny and not just a reddish blur. She looked tired and slightly overwhelmed by the day's events, but he just could not help noticing how tightly her healers robe clung to her body. Suddenly he could think of a thousand ways to further brighten this day. "Especially if it gets delivered by such a pretty mediwitch."

"I think it is save to say that you are getting better every second." replied Ginny, grinning mischievously. She slowly walked over to the mattress Harry was lying on and laid down on top of him even slower. "Good. I need you in your best shape. After all I had a very rough day and I need someone to take care of my _tension_."

Before she could say another word, Harry's lips were on hers and one of his hands was buried in her fiery hair, while the other one was cupping her face. His tongue was tracing her bottom lip, begging for entrance and Ginny was more than happy to grant it. Their minds were wiped blank as their tongues started to dance and the lost each other in the passion of the moment.

Some time later, a loud knock on the door caused them to come back to reality. Harry's shirt was lying forgotten in some corner of the room and Ginny's robe was not far from getting separated from her body. Her hair was messed up and both of their lips were swollen from kissing.

"Mrs. Potter!" shouted a female voice through to door. "There is a flucall for you in fireplace number four. It sounds urgent!"

"Don't answer." whispered Harry into her ear. "She will go away."

"No, she won't." sighed Ginny. "This is Mrs. Hutchens, the woman with the biggest stick up the arse in the whole hospital. If I am not out there in a minute, she will either come in or run to my boss. She knows that I am still in the hospital, so there is no way out. See you in a minute."

Harry watched her go disappointedly, his own needs frustratingly unsatisfied. He laid down on his mattress and rubbed his temples, his mind wandering back to the less satisfying events of the day. He was very sure that Diagon Alley could be rebuilt quickly, with the Ministry organizing it. The damaged had been severe but not devastating after all some parts, for example the Gringrott's vaults had remained unharmed. But when would the Ministry be organized again? Merlin only knew what Scrimgeour was doing in this moment. It even was possible that the minister had died in the attack. His office was nowhere near the area of effect, but maybe he had been in the lobby by coincidence. What was Wright doing? Was he alright? Or did he lead the attack on the leviathans this morning and was currently busy rotting and feeding a few maggots? Harry knew that his boss was one of the toughest guys around, but still he could not help feeling worried about him.

Also he had not heard from Hermione all day. The spellmaker areas were on the other end of the Ministry so chances that she had been anywhere near the lobby at the time of the attack were very slim. Still a lot of unlikely things happened today and nothing seemed impossible to Harry in this moment. Just as he started to wonder why no one had bothered to gather all Aurors to help cleaning the mess up, the door burst open and Ginny was standing in the doorframe. She was flushed and panting, but had a big smile on her face.

"Hermione just called!" she gushed. "She has finished the spell!"


	10. Salvation

Directly after having apparated into Ron's and Hermione's flat, two minutes later, Harry and Ginny found themselves pulled into a bone crushing hug by their bushy haired friend.

"I am so glad that the two of you are alright", she gushed, not realizing that she was nearly suffocating them. "I have heard about the destruction of Diagon Alley on the wireless and was completely shocked. Some rumours are spreading about you, Harry, saying that you helped to set things right and they are spreading like wildfire. I know that Ron is alright, but naturally I was worried about you, especially because I was unable to reach you or Ginny."

"Everything is alright Hermione, we are fine", Harry managed to gasp and gently broke free of the hug. He was very relieved to find his female best friend unharmed and the possibility of finally having found a solution was lifting his spirits even further. "I have been worrying about you; after all you were in the ministry as it was attacked."

"I was nowhere near the area of effect as it happened", she explained. "One moment I was sitting at my desk working and in the next second I heard a huge crash. Then we were ordered to evacuate the building and to go home. I complied and started working on the spell once again. Well and that is where I found the solution."

"What did you find out?" asked Ginny eagerly, excitement ringing in her voice.

"Let's wait for Ron", replied Hermione. "I don't want to explain everything twice and he should be returning from training in fifteen minutes."

Harry had the distinct impression that Hermione was only stalling to further increase Ginny's and his curiosity. Oh well as long as she had found a solution, he did not mind, after all every genius has a few flaws.

"Do you know anything about who's in charge of the ministry right now?" asked Harry, hoping to learn something about Wright's whereabouts.

"No, as far as I know there is no one in controlling anything at the moment", returned Hermione pensively. "It is strange though. I am very sure that the minister did not die during the attack so why is he laying low?"

"Well maybe he is trying to cover the botched up attack", replied Ginny. "You know, waiting until everything has cooled down a bit. If the public learns that he has somehow caused these attacks, then he is in serious trouble. In each case I highly doubt that he will remain minister for a long time after this disaster."

"Well I would not be a great loss", said Harry, while sitting down on the couch. The two women joined him almost immediately. "I wonder what Wright is doing at the moment. Is he playing the good boy and protecting the minister or is he trying to organize some help on his own? Maybe he is already dead; he could have been the commander of the attack. I hope that he is alright, he may be a bit chaotic and sometimes a bit strange, but he is a very nice guy. He has always been on my side and it is very useful to have a high-ranked ally in the ministry – Oh crap! - It is Wednesday and this means that the rookies have been training in the ministry while it was attack!"

"Relay Harry", said Hermione soothingly. "The training facilities are well protected and far away from the lobby. They will be alright."

"Hermione's right", agree Ginny. "And even if something happened to them it is certainly not your fault and you could have done nothing to prevent it."

Precisely in this moment the front door opened and Ron Weasley entered the flat, still wearing his Quidditch gear.

"Hey" he said, slightly breathlessly. "I got your owl Hermione, what is so urgent that I have to hurry home immediately even without changing? And what are Harry and Ginny doing here, shouldn't they be at work?"

"You have not heard?" asked Ginny disbelievingly, wondering how focused on Quidditch you had to be not to notice that the world around you was coming down in flames.

"Would I ask if I knew?" replied Ron, irritated at their stalling. "Will someone i please /i tell me what you are talking about?"

"Sit down Ron", said Harry quietly and started to tell him the day's events.

Ten minutes later Harry had finished his story and a subdued silence had taken over the room. Ron was still thinking about what he had been just told and how it was going to affect him and his friends, while Ginny and Harry did not want to disturb him and Hermione was finishing some calculating only she understood. After a while Ron cleared his throat and spoke up.

"So what's the good news?" he said, looking at each of the three others.

"Good news?" asked Ginny wondering how he knew that there was a sliver lining in today's events. "Why do you belief that there is good news?"

"Because Hermione would not have sent me an owl then, she would have told me personally", he replied, rolling his eyes as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Honestly, do you think I am so insensitive that I do not know my girlfriend?

"Hermione is really rubbing off on you mate", said Harry grinning, after he had gotten over the face that his best friend had just shown a thoroughly hermionish behaviour.

"Oh shut it Harry", replied Hermione, but a smile was playing on her face. "You are right Ron, there is good news, I think I have completed the spell."

Before she could continue her fiancé had already grabbed her and had started to twirl her around the room in joy, ignoring her forceful protests.

"I knew you could do it", said Ron, beaming with relief and pride. "You are the smartest and most beautiful witch around! Now all we have to do is to work out how Harry can hit them without getting blasted and everything will be alright!"

"Ron, you might consider putting her down, I think she is trying to say something", said Ginny dryly, as Hermione's struggling was getting more and more desperate.

"Oh, right, sorry", said Ron, gently letting her down, while grinning sheepishly.

"As I was trying to say before I was so rudely interrupted", started Hermione, while trying to be angry at Ron and failing completely. "We should not celebrate too early. I have changed the spell so it takes care of the Whiteman-Effect. Originally I wanted to modify it so that it entraps all of them at once, but I would have to rewrite the complete spell to achieve this. Unfortunately we do not have that much time, so I decided not to modify it. At least I managed to include a homing spell into it, so you won't have such a hard time hitting them. However there is a problem."

"What is it?" asked Harry impatiently, hoping that they would find a way to work around it.

"It requires way too much energy, about two thousand merlin if my calculations are correct", replied Hermione.

"And where am I supposed to get that kind of energy?" asked Harry, frustrated with the situation. The solution was so close, if only he could get it! "I ran a test a few months ago and had about twenty merlin but that is not nearly enough."

"Err, guys what are merlin?" asked Ron.

"They are a unit to measure magical power. A merlin is the average strength of one of Merlin's not overcharged stunners at three o'clock in the afternoon", returned Hermione casually, sounding like an encyclopaedia.

"I have got an idea", said Ginny, snapping her fingers. "We could use a powerstone, these are magical stones used to power potent healing spells and I am pretty sure that some of them would be strong enough to help us."

"Where is the catch?" asked Harry, knowing always to expect a drawback.

"Well, we would have to liberate all power at once to gather enough energy", she responded. "This means that we can't use the magical fields usually employed to channel the discharged power. You would have to do this and it is possible that you simply get incinerated. Also I do not know where to get one of these."

"I will gladly take this risk", replied Harry immediately. "And I think I know where to find them."

Roland Dex was bored. He hated to have guard duties and he especially hated doing the afternoon shifts. He was going to miss his favourite TV-shows, which he had discovered one day in the apartment of his muggleborn girlfriend. Alright, so he was guarding the building holding the emergency reserve of many valuable goods, but they had not been used in decades. Not even in the two wars, the ministry had regarded it necessary to use any of the items in the magical depot, which was located on a small island on the Scottish coast. In fact no one had bothered to check what was in there for more than fifty years, which was probably the reason why the Dark Lord had not attacked it as soon as possible. Apparently no one thought that this depot was of any importance, but still it was a frequently used place to sent troubling aurors or members of the Squad of Magical Law Enforcement.

Roland, a small, slim man in his thirties with shoulder length blonde hair, a moustache and a boyish face, had been on the Squad for almost eight years, before getting transferred to guard duty. He had gotten drunk in a muggle bar after breaking up with his then-girlfriend and got into a fight with a gang of muggle rowdies. After having broken several of their bones with bludgeoning charms, he had been arrested by his former colleagues. Due to his flawless record he had not been sent to prison, but only got kicked from the squad and transferred here. Now he was a professional guard and he did not like it a bit. The boredom was killing him. However this night was going to be very eventful for him.

He rose from the small chair in his office, which was placed in the foyer of the depot and started doing his rounds. Just as he had stepped outside, he heard a rustling noise to his right. Dex drew his wand and shielded his eyes with one of his hands, trying to block out the afternoon sun. He did not see anything out of the ordinary. Frowning, he pocketed his wand again and started to continue his rounds. However he was hit squarely in the back before he had the chance of doing more than a few steps. Suddenly the air behind him was not empty anymore, but Harry Potter was standing there, his Invisibility Cloak clutched in his hands.

Harry whistled once and Ron, Hermione and Ginny walked out of the thick bushes surrounding the area.

"This has been easy", remarked Ginny, as she was in speaking distance and gestured at the prone form of the guard lying on the floor.

"I told you, no one thinks that there actually is something valuable in this old bunker, thank God!" replied Harry cheerfully. "This is as easy as flying, even though your rustling may have made it more complicated."

"Come off it mate", snorted Ron. "You could have blasted this guy easily."

"Yes, but I do not want to draw attention to the face that Harry Potter stole something from a reserve depot of the ministry of magic."

"Anyway, how are we getting inside?" asked Hermione, who had just finished searching the guard. "He does not have a key or anything similar useful to get inside."

"I am not surprised", replied Harry. "I am wondering if anyone still has any keys to this forsaken place. Well anyway I am going to open the door myself. However finding the powerstones might take a while. If my information is correct then it has at lease ten floors holding tons of unsorted items. It is enchanted with antimagical aura, to prevent anyone unauthorized from apparating or portkeying inside so we can not use Summoning Charms. If we are lucky we will be finished within three hours."

"Great", sighed Ron, Hermione and Ginny at same time, mentally preparing themselves for a long afternoon, while Harry channelled his power to blast down the door.

Three hours later Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were once again sitting on the kitchen table in Ron's and Hermione's flat. A gold brown, jagged stone, roughly the size of a fist, was lying in the middle of the table, emanating a soft, golden glow. They had returned with it nearly half an hour ago, after searching through most of the depot. It had been hard to find an intact powerstone, which was big and flawless enough to serve their purpose. When they had finally located it, they quickly left the crime scene, casting a time delayed Enervation Charm on the stunned guard before apparating away. Now the only thing left to do was to develop a plan.

"Can anyone tell me again how this thing is going to help us deal with three thousands of years old and nearly invincible lunatics?" asked Ron, gesturing at the harmless looking stone placed on the table. "The thing looks as though it had trouble handling a child with a toy wand!"

"Honestly Ron!" replied Hermione irritably. "Do not judge a book by its cover! The stone is filled with gigantic amounts of raw magical energy and we will use it to power the spell we are going to use on the leviathans."

"Are you sure that it will contain enough energy to entrap all three of them?" asked Harry, trying to steer the conversation into safer waters to prevent another argument between his two best friends.

"Well, we don't really know", answered Ginny. "No one has ever tried to use a powerstone the way we are going to, so we can only guess. But judging by the amount of energy they normally contain, the odds are good that it will work."

"So we are gambling again", sighed Harry, running a hand through his hair. "I have had enough risks for a lifetime, but I guess we do not really have another choice. I really don't want to see anymore people dieing, because these three maniacs have a score the settle. We have to put an end to this!"

"Right you are Harry", returned Hermione, brightly. "That's why we are here. You know that powerstones normally get grounded. Then their energy may be tapped by inserting them in special magical fields. However this method is not very effective, only a small part of a stone's power can be accessed this way. Unfortunately there are no other stable ways of doing it, because they always liberate a large amount of raw and unfocused energy, which destroys everything if not getting controlled immediately. And this is where you step in."

"Thanks to Zerthimon's Focus I am able to channel and to form all kind of energies", continued Harry, grasping what she had planned. "I even can absorb energies that are not my own and add them to my own. It certainly is not easy but I can do it. So basically your plan is to gamble that there is enough energy in the stone, hoping that I will be able to absorb it and to use it to cast a patchwork spell never tested before, on three of the most powerful beings, which have ever walked the earth?"

"Well technically it was Ginny's idea, but yes, that is the plan", replied Hermione calmly.

"Great, and after we have done this, we are going to invent a broomstick, which can reach the moon, no problem at all", said Harry, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Look, I may have defeated Voldemort, but I am not invincible. Fighting him was really, really close and I am no match for the leviathans. They can rip me apart without even getting out of breath."

"And that is why we are going to think of a really good strategy", returned Ginny, her eyes sparkling with what might be anger. "We don't have another choice than to use the powerstone, we simply would not be able to gather the energy. However you do not have to fight the three titans. The spell has to be used thrice, once on each of them. However it is auto aiming, all you have to do is to concentrate on their magical energies while you are launching the spell and they will find their targets. So you can play hit and run with them and I am very sure that you will be able to do this without getting a scratch."

Harry though about this for a while. She had a point, it actually could work. They would place anti-apparating wards on the area so Crosis, Shai and Anhur could not simply vanish. He would still be able to teleport, thanks to the Blinking Charm. If he kept moving they would be unable to hit him and he would win! But he should use every advantage he could get. The three were not stupid, well Anhur was but that was beside the point, so they would probably recognize his strategy soon. So he made a mental note to hit the smartest of them, Crosis, at first. With him out of the picture he might stand a chance.

"Alright", he found himself saying. "What exactly do you have in mind?"

Two hours later Harry found himself standing once again in the canyon, where he had first met the leviathans. He was wearing his auror robes, feeling that he would need every extra protection he could get. Fingering the cool powerstone in his right pocket he allowed his mind to wander.

"This place is becoming a very macabre running gag" he thought, not at all happy having to return here. Someone had cleaned the whole thing up; no traces of the slaughter could be found even though it had only happened this morning. Apparently the ministry was not as disorganized as he had thought. Deciding to worry about Scrimgeour and his goons later, he focused again on the plan he was going to execute soon.

Despite any improvements he, Ron, Hermione and Ginny had made to their original strategy, it sill was very, very risky. Harry hated gambling and he especially hated gambling with high stakes. If everything went smoothly, he would be celebrating with Ginny in an hour; if not… well he would not have to worry about that anymore. The plan had two very risky spots were the whole thing could come down. The first one was to actually convince the three titans that a new round of the contest would start today, even though it was thee days too early. Also he would have to motivate them so much that they would not pay too much attention to him; he needed the time to prepare the spell. If he had done that the rest would be peachy and easy. Well, except for entombing them for good of course.

Praying that it would go well, Harry created the beacon.

They arrived faster then he had anticipated. Barely a minute had passed after he had created the beacon and already all three of them were floating in the sky above him. He scanned them carefully, looking for any signs that they had become distrustful after the ministry's attack on them. He found none. As usual, Crosis looked aloof and self confident, as far as one could tell, his face was skeletal after all. Anhur had his trademark scowl plastered on his face and seemed constantly ready to kill the unfortunate being, which stood closest to him. While this state of mind would be normally considered alarming, it was perfectly ordinary for the brute. Harry wondered not for the first time, when and how Anhur had lost his marbles so completely. Shai looked as inscrutable as ever, her incredible beauty cool and foreboding. It was hard to tell if she was suspecting anything, but so far he had no reason to assume it.

"Well arbiter", said Crosis in his icy voice. "You have called us and here we are. What is the reason for this unusual gathering?"

Harry cleared his throat and carefully weighted his words before answering the skeletal mage.

"I was thinking about the contest yesterday and came to the conclusion that it has been going on for too long", he started, forcing his voice to stay cool and void of any emotions. "Your little…err… "Run-in" with the ministry today proved that we are not operating under optimal conditions. Your retaliation has been hard but one would be foolish to assume that this matter had been put to rest. It is very likely that you will be attacked again in the near future and they won't underestimate you again."

"HAH", cried Anhur. "As if these weaklings could damage us! We are immortal, we are GODS! They should worship us and pray for their little lives!"

"I agree. It is very unlikely that they will prove a threat for us", added Crosis.

"You are right, they won't be able to actually hurt you", replied Harry, hoping that they would buy his next bluff. "However I have received information that the ministry has been able to retrieve the spell Tourach used on you so many years ago. They are currently planning how to entrap you again and I am afraid that they have the resources need to successfully execute this plan."

Stunned silence followed his explanation. Crosis' and Anhur's face had darkened into frowns, while Shai's remained as expressionless as ever. They seemed to be buying it.

"If we consider your information correct arbiter, then we should act quickly", said Shai after a minute, her voice ringing like a glass bell. "Is there any chance of preventing them from entrapping us again?"

"I am afraid not", replied Harry, shaking his had and lowering his head as though he were really worried about this problem. "My information is very sketchy and I doubt that I will be able to collect any more in the near future, thanks to your little stunt in the ministry. By the time I will be able to contact my source again it may be too late. Also we have no idea where the spell currently is, so a preventive strike is out of question. With the contest going on you three are easy targets; all they have to do to find you is to follow me. Of course we could still pause until the whole thing has cooled down a bit, but I have no idea how long this is going to be."

"That is not an option!" said Shai, a small trace of anger in her voice. "We have been waiting for more than three thousand years and we are not going to wait any longer. Voice your suggestion arbiter, maybe it will be useful."

"Alright, this is what I have in mind", replied Harry, after Anhur and Crosis had given their approval. "We are going to end the contest tonight. This means what only one of us is going to survive this. I am going to create an arena, which will serve as a battleground today. If anyone of you gets pushed out of it, he or she has lost and will be unable to rejoin combat. The same is true for someone, who is lying on the ground for more than ten seconds. You will have fifteen minutes to fight and either only one of you remains standing or we will let the points decide. I will create a magical counter, which will measure the number of blows delivered and endured. Then it will calculate points and the one with the most wins. He or she will absorb all of the other's energy, including mine and the losers will most likely die during the process, so give your best. Oh and one more thing: summoning creatures is prohibited."

It took a while for all this information to sink, but finally all three leviathans agreed. Apparently no one of them had realized that Harry was actually trying to end the contest, because they had been much too self centred. Harry has never been more grateful for absolute ignorance than on this day. Now all he needed was a bit of luck and he would have one of them trapped!

"Alright then, I am going to cast the spells necessary to start this round", he said, whipping out his wand and clutching the powerstone in his pocket with the other hand. He flicked his wand once and a large battle ring appeared in the middle of the canyon. It was roughly twenty feet in diameter and made of white marble, but completely unadorned. "Please be so kind and step into the arena already, while I do this. Please be patient, this may take a while."

The three leviathans complied immediately and Harry released a breath he did not know he had been holding. Mentally preparing himself for the worst he tightened his grip around the smooth powerstone in his pocket and placed the anti-apparation wards. Taking a deep breath, he started to channel his power and crushed it.

The pain was excruciating. Liquid fire was flowing through his veins, while icy winds chilled him to the bone and every inch of his body was getting doused in acid. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before and was at the same time worse and gentler than the Cruciatus. At least it nearly allowed him to think. He had crushed the stone a few seconds ago or had it been a few hours ago? He was screaming or wasn't he? Was he dead or was he alive? He had forgotten. All he knew was that he was in agony and that he would not be able to bear it much longer. And then suddenly it stopped.

Harry opened his eyes and found himself still standing in the canyon. Apparently the leviathans had not perceived anything or they simply had not given a damn. It did not matter anyway. What mattered was, that he felt great. Not the kind of great you would feel after really doing well in an exam or getting an amazing shag. No, it was this I-am-God-watch-me kicking-your-ass great! He had never felt this powerful in his life! His whole being was throbbing with energy and every ounce of it answered his call immediately. He could do this!

Beaming, he started to mumble the incantation of the trapping spell, waving both of his arms in the complicate movements Hermione had shown him. He could here the titans getting impatient but he only needed a few more seconds. Already tracking Crosis' aura, he started to pour energy into the spell. A large powder white orb appeared between his hands and he knew that it was ready. Harry still felt great and he knew that he had more than enough energy left to entomb all three leviathans.

Suddenly a startled cry erupted in the arena. Damn. Crosis had recognized the spell, it was now or never. Harry flung the sphere and barely was able to blink away, before a magma jet, a Death Ball and a flying crystal hit the ground where he had been standing. He appeared on the other end of the arena and saw Crosis getting hit by the spell. The skeleton tried to block it with a black shield, but it simply breezed through it and hit him dead centre. A blinding flash occurred and Crosis was gone. Harry whooped in triumph; the spell had actually worked! However he did not have the time to enjoy his victory. Anhur and Shai had spotted him and started shooting a barrage of spells at him, cursing him for being a traitor. He needed time to cast the spell and he could not do it, while having to dodge all the time.

Suddenly he had an idea; if they wanted to shoot spells at him, let them! He teleported away again, back to his original position and cast a single spell. Suddenly the whole canyon was filled with Harries, which started to recast the trapping spell. Now all he could was hoping that the two remaining leviathans needed a while to find the real him. Anhur and Shai looked confused for a while, before starting to fire spells at the nearest Harries. The illusions flickered and died, but they were far away for the real Harry. "This is looking good", he thought, having finished nearly half of the spell. Then, however, Shai launched a gigantic white shockwave, which spread throughout the whole canyon, causing everything it touched to be blown to a million pieces.

Harry watched the wave running towards him, it was so close! He needed only five more seconds! It was twenty feet away. Three seconds to go. It was ten feet away. One second to go. It was one feet away. Ready! Harry had Shai's aura locked in an instant and fired the spell immediately. Then he blinked away to an area the wave had already passed, a split second before he would have been ripped to pieces. He watched the spell track Shai, like it had done with Crosis and was relieved to see her disappearing like he had. Just as he breathed a sigh of relieve, he was hit in the back by something fluid and incredibly hot! He vanished it immediately, but it had already burned through his robe and deeply burned his back. Blood was starting to pour down his spine, and the pain flooded his mind. Harry pushed it away just in time, to prevent getting hit by one more of Anhur's magma jets.

"So it's all between us, huh?" called the brute, a maniacal glow in his black eyes. "I am really looking forward on killing you!"

Anhur started to barrage him with fire spells and Harry knew that he would not be fooled by another illusion. His power was quickly running out, he needed to cast the spell quickly. However he needed every ounce of concentration to dodge his opponent's attacks. He needed to occupy him for a moment. He jumped over one of Anhur's fireballs and watched it harmlessly hit into a canyon wall, where it did almost no damage. Then it hit him. Tapping into his powers, he summoned a block of stones around his opponent, enchanting it to be completely fireproof. The brute tried to apparate out, but Harry's wards held him in place. Not knowing how long his makeshift confinement, would last, Harry started to cast the spell again and managed to hit Anhur just as he broke free out of his stony prison. He vanished in a flash of light and it was over.

Falling down to his knees, Harry dispelled the anti-apparating wards to return to Ginny. His back was feeling worse by the second and he was feeling as weak as a newborn child. Apparently casting the spell thrice had completely drained his magical reserves, even though he had used the powerstone. Suddenly he heard a soft pop behind himself and was hit by a full body bind, before being able to react.

"Harry Potter, you are placed under arrest", said an unknown voice behind him, before knocking him out cold with a stunner.


	11. Politics

Regaining consciousness on a hard stone floor was not funny at all, especially if you had just been arrested, without knowing the charges, after nearly getting burned to a crisp by some crazed ancient being. Harry Potter found himself in just this kind of situation. He woke up on the cold, hard floor of his cell and groggily got up. He was standing in a rectangular room, each side roughly measuring twelve feet. A small, uncomfortable looking bed and a waste bucket were the only furniture and Harry briefly wondered why he had woken up on the floor instead of on the bed. Pushing this useless thought aside, he further examined the room and was surprised to find out that one of the walls was slightly translucent. Furrowing his brows, he walked over to it and touched it. It felt as cool and smooth as it should, but Harry could feel the energy pulsing in it. "A magical barrier, masked by an illusion to make it appear like a regular wall", he said to himself, impressed at the display of magical power. Scrimgeour was not taking any risks, it was nearly impossible to breach such a field without a wand.

The first thing Harry had noticed after waking up was that the familiar weight of his wand holster on his right arm was gone. He was not surprised. He did not now for sure that he had been taking into the ministry's custody, but he strongly suspected it. After all no one else would arrest him formally. However he had been surprised to find the wounds on his back tended and to find himself wearing a plain black robe, instead of his usual high-auror gear. Everything was completely quiet, but he was sure that silencing charms had been placed around the cell, he would have placed them. Still, he knew that it would not be long until his captor would show himself. Maybe he would be out of here in an hour, but he highly doubted that. The question was who had kidnapped him and why?

The only person he could think of, who would profit from him being out of the picture would be the minister or least Scrimgeour thought so. However he did not know why it happened now. What was the minister playing at? He could have used his influence to get Harry arrested much early, directly after the first encounter with the leviathans. It would have been easy to place him in protective custody, until his relation to the three had been researched. It was not making any sense.

Sighing, Harry accepted the face that he had no other option than to wait. He could feel that a Displacement Aura had been cast on the cell, so he would be unable to apparate, portkey or even to blink out. To make matters even worse, he did not have his wand and while he was a good fighter without it, he did not have the energy to free himself. With it, he might have been able to escape, but in this condition every attempt was a waste of energy. At least he still had his wedding ring, which had a emergency portkey imbedded, but it was unfortunately rendered useless by the aura. Deciding to keep a few tricks up the sleeve, he sat down on his bed and closed his eyes. Ginny was going to be so mad!

Interlude: two hours earlier

"Gone, what do you mean gone??" screamed Ginny, advancing on her older brother with her wand clutched in her hand, who seemed to cower under her steely gaze.

"I mean gone, as in vanished without a bloody trace", replied Ron Weasley, quietly, knowing that it was prudent not to further enrage his livid sister. Honestly how did Harry endure being married to her?

"And tell me again _how_ he managed to vanish, even though it was your job to watch him all the time?" the fiery haired woman demanded angrily.

"Alright, I watched him all the time like we had agreed to do", returned Ron, relieved at not getting hexed yet. "I used my binoculars and the invisibility cloak, so Harry would not see me and make a scene. Anyway everything went fine; the leviathans seemed to buy my little story, finally watching X-Files has been paying off. So Harry hits this skeletal guy with the spell and everything worked just as we thought it would. He starts to dodge the other titan's attacks and manages to trap all of them, even tough he received a nasty burn."

"Don't worry, he will survive", he added quickly, seeing the worried look in his sister's eyes. "However just after he had finished the leviathans of, this bunch of aurors appeared behind, stunned him and took him away. I was too far away to do anything. After all I had to keep a distance to prevent Harry from sensing me."

"So someone in the ministry is holding my husband in custody", replied Ginny grimly. "I will teach them to mess with an ex-Weasley. I will get my husband back and if it is the last thing I do! I am going to apparate their right now!"

"Ginny be reasonable", interrupted Hermione. "We do not know that Harry is indeed a prisoner. Maybe everything has been a mistake and his is just now finishing some important paperwork with Wright. After all, the ministry lies in tatters, where are you going to complain? They said on the wireless, that a temporary ministry substitute will open in Hogsmeade tomorrow. Please wait until then, maybe Harry will be home before the sun rises. Please think about it for a moment!"

The redhead remained silent for a while and Hermione could feel the inner struggle her friend was fighting. Finally Ginny pocketed her wand and spoke up again.

"Alright, but I will leave as soon as the sun rises", she said, stomping of to the bathroom to change for the night.

"I pity the poor bloke, who is going to put up with her tomorrow", muttered Ron under his breath.

Harry jerked out of the trance had been in at the quiet, slightly buzzing sound of the energy field becoming completely translucent. He had slept for a few hours, before starting his meditation in the vain attempt to gather enough energy to free himself. Not only he was not able to blast the bloody field, no he was also miles away from his usual form, still being drained from his final encounter with the leviathans. He doubted that he would be able to fire more than a few spells wandlessly, before being completely exhausted. Not really great conditions to survive a fight. Well, it could be worse. He still could handle a few opponents by attacking their minds directly, if he could buy the time he needed. It was not very well known that he could do wandless magic and his mental attack techniques were even less known, so the chances were high that he would at least surprise his foes. Making a mental note to stay careful, he focused his gaze on the now transparent wall and was not surprise to find himself face to face with the minister of magic himself.

"Ah Mr. Potter", said the minister gleefully. "I hope that you found your night enjoyable."

"Well the mattress is a bit hard, I am afraid", replied Harry smoothly. "And the catering is very poor."

"I see that at least your cockiness has not suffered", returned Scrimgeour, his cheerfulness not affected in the least. "You might have wondered why I am keeping you here."

"Oh, is this the moment where the evil villain tells the noble hero his insidious plan?" asked Harry teasingly, hoping to provoke Scimgeour so much that he told him more than he originally wanted.

"You should watch your tongue Potter", snarled the minister. "Or I am going to have a little chat with your enchanting wife."

"How do you know about Ginny?" asked Harry, icy dread running through his veins. If Scrimgeour was going to hurt her, he would rip him limb for limb.

"Young Percy Weasley let it slip some time ago", the minister replied smoothly. "Anyway I am a busy man, so let's get this over with quickly. I arrested you, because of the failed attack yesterday. I knew that you were going to see the leviathans again, so I ordered a few aurors to watch the canyon where you met them for the first time. Fortunately my hunch was correct and you showed up. After you had dealt with the titans it was easy to capture you and to bring you here. We had to stitch you back together though, I still need you alive."

"So far so good, but this still does not explain why you took me in the first place", returned Harry, growing tired of the game.

"I am coming to this", said Scrimgeour, sounding really pleased with himself. Even under normal circumstances the minister had an abundance of self esteem, but right now he was nearing the lethal dose. "If anyone finds out that I ordered the attack, then I am gone. I will be lucky to escape prison. I do not have any intention of letting this happen. I am the best minister of magic this country has had for more than fifty years and I am not going to give up on my power. Fortunately you are so conveniently around. You will be my key to come out of the mess unscathed."

"As soon as the reconstruction of the ministry is complete, you will plead before a court. The charges include, but are not limited to: sabotage, theft, high-treason and murder. I can not control the court, so you will have to admit all these crimes. You are going to testify that you forged my orders to attack, to weaken the ministry. Then you banished the leviathans to be the great saviour once again and to use this position to take control of the crippled ministry without any difficulties. All the time you held me locked up in my own office, but I managed to escape while you fought the leviathans and organized a group of aurors to arrest you. I highly doubt that your sentence will be shorter than lifelong".

Harry looked at the older man incredulously. When had Scrimgeour lost his marbles? His paranoia combined with his fierce desire to protect his own power was a dangerous mixture indeed. Harry had felt the lure of power often enough to partly understand the minister's situation. However had also seen enough of its victims to know that it was impossible to help the battle hardened ex-auror. He was completely obsessed with his plan and it would take ages to break through the barrier built around his mind. Sighing, Harry spoke up again.

"Why on earth should I help you?"

"Because if you don't some of my men are going to kill your wife", replied Scrimgeour, placing his hands on the barrier and smiling predatory. "I did not order them to do it quickly, so they may take their sweet time with her. I have heard that she is quite good looking."

White hot anger cures through Harry's veins, but he fought it down, unwilling to reveal how much these words affected him.

"This is not over Scrimgeour, we will meet again soon and then the circumstances won't be in your favour any longer", growled Harry, even though he knew that his threat was empty. "Do I get my owl? As you know I have the right to notify someone that I was arrested."

"Your rights will be read to you at your funeral, Mr. Potter", was the only thing the minister replied, before walking away slowly.

The sun had barely crept over the horizon, as Ginny Potter apparated into Hogsmeade, wearing a black jumper, tight blue jeans and a leather jacket Harry had once bought her on an impulse. It was a bright and crisp day, the cool October air smelt fresh and clean. Under normal circumstances she might have been happy about the nice weather, but today if had quite the contrary effect on her. Her already mounting anger was rising with every second. She did not even know with whom she was angry in the first place. She was furious with Harry for letting himself getting captured, she was livid at his captors and she was mad at the ministry, which may or may not have been taking her husband, for not doing anything about it. She had lain awake all night, thinking of her lost husband and pondering her next steps. By the time morning had arrived she was ready to kill the next unfortunate person pissing her off. And she did not take her long to find this poor being.

What looked like a fairly normal tent, with the scarlet label "substitute ministry of magic" had been erected on the marketplace of the small village. Not that the superscript was necessary though. The incredible amount of people walking in and out the tent, often in highly official looking robes, would be enough to reveal the tent's person to almost every witch and wizard in the country. "Okay, let's get on with the show, at least I look like the tough chick I am", she thought, before entering the tent with fast, angry steps, her high heels clicking on the cobblestones.

The interior of the marquee had been magically extended and no was at least as big as a three story house. It was furnished very exclusively, mahogany desks, marble floors and silken tapestry made it appear like the manor of a very rich and old family. Apparently the ministry valued style over functionality, which further fuelled Ginny's anger. The inside was a gigantic hall littered with an abundance of desks, where ministry employees were serving their customers. Or at least they tried to because there were at least thrice as many clients than clerks. Queues had already formed and were constantly getting longer. Sighing, Ginny queued up herself and settled in for a long wait, her temper flaming. She had to use every ounce of her willpower not to draw her wand and to bat-bogey-hex anyone into oblivion until they told her where on earth her husband was. Making a mental note to stay polite but firm, she impatiently waited until it was her turn.

"Ginny what are you doing here?" Ginny had just reached the end of the line and was more than a bit surprised to come face to face with her brother Percy.

"Percy?" she asked, perplex. "Why are you working as a simple clerk?"

"The ministry needs me in this mundane position I am afraid", he replied arrogantly. "Well, maybe it will be beneficial for my career. Anyway what may I do for you?"

"My husband _vanished_ last night", said Ginny, after taking a deep breath.

"Vanished?" replied Percy, raising his eyebrows. "Did you have a fight?"

"No, it's not like that", answered Ginny impatiently, not eager to discuss the fact that Harry had faced the three leviathans in a crowded hall. "He was doing a mission and I have spoken to an eyewitness, who claims that Harry has been captured by the ministry. Do you happen to know anything about it?"

"Captured by the ministry, this is ridiculous", said Percy in an extremely confident voice. "Why should we arrest one of our top aurors? We would need proof that Harry is a danger to the ministry to do this and as far as I know there is no reason to suspect this. And even if we had him in custody, it would be top secret and we certainly would not tell you."

This really wasn't what Ginny wanted to hear and her already boiling temper was close to finally explode.

"Where do you think he is then or am I so unimportant that you won't tell me?" she asked waspishly.

"I think he has simply had a drink to much and is probably right now lying in bed with another woman", replied Percy calmly, completely ignoring his sister's anger. A stupid mistake. His implication had been the last straw for Ginny. She swung a right hook at his face and knocked him down to the ground.

"Now you listen to me you prat!" she shouted at him, drawing her wand. "Harry would never do this to me and you know it! I know that this is serious and I am going to find him and you should not stand in my way. I may be too unimportant to be informed, but I have got a wicked right hook."

With these words, she swished her long red mane over her shoulder and calmly walked out of the ministry, her high heels ringing in the now silent room.

Even though she had found an outlet for her anger and her frustration in her prat of a brother, Ginny still was fuming after leaving the makeshift ministry. She was so caught up with mentally murdering everyone in the goddamned ministry that she did not pay attention to where she was walking. Consequently she crashed into another person after only a few steps and found herself lying on the ground an instant later, looking up in a sharp-cut, ascetic face with light blue eyes and short cropped grey hair. John Wright's face.

"I am terribly sorry, lady, here let me help… Ginny! What on earth are you doing here?" he said, surprise evident on his face. They had met during a ministry Christmas party a year ago and had gotten along very well. Ginny suspected that the older man nursed a soft spot for her, probably because she reminded him of one of his numerous ex-wives.

"Hey John, it is nice to meet you too", she replied, grasping his hand, which he had extended before recognizing her and pulled herself back to her feet. "And to answer your question: it is a rather long story and I do not want to discuss it in public."

"A very wise decision. These are turbulent times and one does not know who to trust", he replied pensively. "I think I know the perfect place to discuss some, ah, sensitive issues. I will have to take you with me, using side along apparation. Are you ready?"

Ginny barely had time to nod, before Wright had already taken hold of her arm and apparated away with her.

Ginny found herself standing in a big, but incredibly messy flat. Used clothes, books, files and empty bottles littered the floor, nearly covering it completely. If Wright was uncomfortable with her seeing his flat's state, he did not show it, because he simply lead her through an, at least for her, invisible path through the chaos to what appeared to be the kitchen. If you could call it kitchen, because the room only held a big table, three chairs, a sink and an enormous fridge. Wright motioned her to sit down, walked over to the fridge and opened it, revealing an enormous collection of all kind of alcoholic beverage and lots of mineral water bottles. He extracted one water flagon and placed it on the table, before summoning two glasses and sitting down.

"Alright, now tell me your story and do not worry, I check this place thoroughly every night before going to sleep. It is clean", he said after having poured two glasses.

"Well it all sort of begins with the leviathans…" started Ginny and recounted the events of the last two days. She did not really like sharing this much of sensible information but she was desperate at the moment and she knew that she could trust the head of Magical Law Enforcement. After all Harry trusted him and her husband was one of the most suspicious persons alive.

"You know this actually makes a lot of sense", said Wright, pensively stroking the few stubbles on his chin after she had finished her story. "I am nearly one hounded percent sure that the ministry is currently keeping Harry in custody."  
"But why would they do this?" asked Ginny. "It does not make any sense! After all Harry has saved their ass once again!"

"That's true and that's why the situation is so perfect", answered the auror. "Think about it. Yesterday more than five thousand people lost their lives, due to the botched up attack the minister of magic launched. Many very good aurors died yesterday and some very influential people lost friends or relatives in the attacks. They will want to see someone punished for this catastrophe. And then one day later; Harry shows up and manages to save the day as usual, without hurting anyone innocent in the process. If the public learns about this, the ministry will look like a group of damsels in distress and Scrimgeour will be finished. Are you with me so far?"

"Yeah", replied Ginny, agreeing that all of this made sense. "But I still don't see how keeping Harry as a prisoner is going to help."

"I am coming to that", he replied. "So far only a handful of people know that the leviathans are gone, therefore it will be easy to manipulate the truth a bit. The ministry puts Harry out of the picture and claims to have been successful itself and that he is the villain, who was the one to organize and to sabotage the failed attack, because he actually worked for the leviathans. Harry will be thrown to jail, because there are as good as no reliable witnesses confirming his side of the story and Scrimgeour will be a hero, probably going to stay minister for the next twenty years. And unfortunately we can not do anything without having actual prove that Harry is indeed in ministry custody and we are not going to get that anytime soon. If we knew where he was being held we could try to free him, but we do not even have we slightest idea where this could be."

"And summed up this means…" started Ginny, her voice cracking.

"That the next time we are going to see Harry he probably will already have been sentenced to a lifetime in prison, yeah", replied Wright, his face grim.

center /center 

It had been a very uneventful week as a captive for Harry. No one had talked to him except for Scrimgeour on the first day of his involuntary residence. Every six hours the force field keeping him imprisoned would disappear and a group of at least four aurors would bring him something to eat and to drink, with wands at the ready. He did not know what the minister had told his former colleagues, but he could see fear and anger in their eyes. They always kept their eyes on him during their short visits and he could sense that they were ready to hex him into oblivion every moment.

Even though their fear was irrational, after all Harry did not have his wand and even he would not be able to down all four of them without magic, but Harry found the situation quite pleasing. At least he would not have to endure any taunting from his frightened guards. However he was worried about their reaction. If they were that afraid of him, while harbouring such anger at the same time, then Scrimgeour's story had to be very convincing. And this meant that the men tailing Ginny would be in the same state as the guards there. Harry doubted very much that his wife's death would be quick if he escaped and was not able to reach her in time.

Pushing these disturbing thoughts away, Harry once again started his meditation. It helped him to clear his mind and to plan his next course of action after he had gotten out of here. If he was getting out of here. He had long ago abandoned all hope that he would be able to free himself, he simply was too weak without his wand to do and the fact that Scrimgeour's goons were not taking any chances did not help. So all he could do was to wait for help to arrive from the outside, but he doubted that anyone would be able to find him here. The minister may be paranoid, but he was no fool. Anyway, as soon as he was out of here, he would save Ginny. And then he would show Scrimgeour how dangerous Harry Potter could become! Just as he started to fantasize about his revenge and gurgling noise occurred outside his cell – When had the silencing charms been dispelled? –, followed by the dull sound of something heavy hitting the force field.

Harry was on his feet in an instant, his heart beating wildly. What on earth was going on? Was he getting freed? Had some of his guards decided to take the matter into their own hands and were going to finish him off? Or were the leviathans back and were trying to get revenge on their would-be captor? Gathering as much energy as he could, Harry focused his attention completely on the force field. Whatever was causing the sounds would need to get through it, to get to him and he would be ready to meet it. If it was hostile, oh well, at least he would die fighting. But all his experience and all his instincts could not prepare Harry for what was waiting outside for him. Suddenly something crashed against the field and it fluttered away to non-existence, leaving Harry staring into…

…darkness. Pitch black, all consuming darkness, which slowly moved into the cell. Harry retreated and cast a wandless shield charm on himself, being completely unfamiliar with this phenomenon. His shield was weak, but at least it would buy him some time. Just as he was preparing to cast a cutting charm, the darkness compressed itself and formed a concrete form. Suddenly Harry found himself staring into the face of a tall and lean man, completely made out of shadows. Sandro the shade assassin!

"Greetings Harry", replied the shade brightly. "I daresay it is nice to see you again. The last few months were very entertaining, thanks for putting on a bit of a show!"

"Sandro?" replied Harry weakly, convinced that the whole world had gone mad. The best and probably the craziest assassin of all times had come to rescue him from his imprisonment at he ministry? It sounded like a dream. "What on earth are you doing here?"

"Getting your ass out, what else?" asked the assassin, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, I got that, but why?" returned Harry, as far as he knew, Sandro needed at least two good reasons to do anything for another person.

"Well first of all, I watched you trapping the three big guys and it was a damn good show! Then I saw you getting bagged by this bunch of ministry dudes, so I decided to be a nice guy and get you out. It took me a while to find out where one was keeping you, but I still had a few favours to pull in, so no harm done. Oh and I always wanted to get someone out of prison, it is kind of exciting and funny, don't you think so?"

Harry did not agree to Sandro's definition of fun at all, but he decided not to let the situation pass. "Err, alright, let's go! I need to be home as soon as possible. Do you have any idea, if you were spotted while entering?"

"I don't think so", replied the assassin confidently. "But someone will find the bodies of your guards soon."

"Damn!" cursed Harry. Ginny would be as good as dead as soon as his jailbreak was discovered. He needed to get out of the range of the Displacement Aura, so he could use his ring to get back home. Unfortunately, it extended on the whole area and not just his cell.

He found himself standing in a bare, white corridor with countless of cells embedded in each wall. On his left, it ended in a solid looking door, which was currently slightly ajar and permitted him to see the crumbled bodies of his guards lying in the room beneath it. It would take much too long to find a common way out. However Harry found the solution on his right. Here the corridor ended in a large balcony and he could feel that the aura stopped directly after it. All he had to do was to jump over the edge and active the ring. Gulping he walked to the balcony and found himself standing at least a hundred feet over the raging sea. Thanking Sandro one more time for getting him out, the jumped over the edge into the evening sky.

After falling through the familiar whirl of colours travelling with a portkey caused, Harry found himself standing in his dark living room, his heart beating a mile a minute. It looked exactly the same as before he left, but this did not mean that every thing was indeed unchanged. He was worried. He did not know if his breakout had been discover yet and the thought that Ginny could be dead already was swirling around in his head. Please let her be alright! He was repeating this mantra over and over in his head, as though he could actually influence the fate of the world with his wishes. So far he had no reason to suspect that she was dead, but a small part of him was wondering if Scrimgeour had not already finished her just to have her out of the way. It was a horrifying thought, but Harry had learned long ago to think the unthinkable and to expect the unexpected. He had to find her.

Harry stealthily walked into the bedroom, trying to stay in the shadows, just in case the minister's goons were watching the flat. This room was dark as well, but he could see light shining through the door of the bathroom. Steeling himself for the worst, Harry burst through the door, ready to down everyone inside with a few practised strikes. Fortunately he did not have to. Instead of a dozen foes, he found himself face to face with his very surprised wife, who was wearing nothing but a tight blue jeans and a black lace bra. Before Ginny had any time to react, Harry had already pulled her into a crushing hug.

"You are alright, you are alright…" he whispered into her hair, feeling the weight in his stomach, which had been a loyal companion during the last week slip away. Suddenly he did not want to fight anymore. He simply wanted time to stop and to remain forever in this comforting embrace. He was tired. He had fought for nearly all of his life and it felt so completely unfair that he still had to do it. Still the alternative was to spend the rest of his life on the run or in prison and that was not an option. He had to fight on, if not for himself, than for Ginny. She deserved to be happy and having a husband in prison normally was not a woman's favourite dream.

"Harry", she replied so softly that he thought he had imagined it. "What is going on? Where have you been?"

"Sorry love, we don't have time for this", he replied, pulling away reluctantly. "We are going to get bad company any moment. Pack a few clothes; we are going to move into Grimmauld Place for a while."

With these words he stormed out of the room, straight into his library, Ginny hot on his heels.

"Harry James Potter, you will tell me this instant what on earth is going on or I swear I will…" she said angrily, but Harry had already tuned her out. Instead he focused his attention on one of the large, sturdy bookshelves in the room. Placing a hand on the light birch wood, he mumbled a few words under his breath.

"Wolves in Wolves' clothing."

Ginny's angry tirade was cut off, by the sudden change of the shelves' content. Instead of innocent books, it was now filled with all kind of magical artefacts. Magical rings, robes, and staffs were jammed into the case together with a variety of magical gems and runes as well as a small wooden chest and a moneybag. Harry walked to the bookcase and picked up a long, black staff. Its wood forked at the end and a sparkling ruby had been imbedded in the wood directly beneath the split.

"Harry what is this?" asked Ginny, with a determined edge in her voice. Harry knew that ignoring her would be very unwise in this situation, because the following argument would take a lot longer than simply explaining everything.

"This is my emergency bookcase. Filled with everything you are going to need in a desperate situation. This wooden chest held some spare wands, highly useful, if you have lost your original one. The moneybag is filled with one hundred thousand galleons and the artefacts will provide you with whatever magic cantrip you might need in the moment.. The books are some very dark and dangerous and I just did not want them to give them to the ministry, so I decided to keep them save here. Oh and what I am holding here is a magical staff, when use it will…

His explanation was rudely interrupted by a large crash coming from the front door. Before Harry or Ginny could react, an auror was already in the doorframe, his wand at the ready. And he was aiming at Ginny!

"NO!" screamed Harry and threw her down to the floor, just as the auror shouted "Incinere" and a white hot flame erupted from his wand, hitting the air just where Ginny's head had been a second ago. Scalding rage flooded through Harry's veins. Everything in him screamed to kill the bastard for wanting to hurt his wife and this time he did not fight back as usual. He embraced the rage! The chest containing the wands was too far away, but still had the staff clutched in his hand. In a lighting fast movement, he lifted the weapon and aimed at the auror, just as two other intruders appeared in the doorframe behind him. Smiling wickedly, Harry whispered the incantation.

The noise was deafening. A shower of small, white-hot fireballs erupted from the ruby, hitting the intruders. The orbs penetrated the auror robes with enough force to damage the soft flesh beneath it and the three intruders quickly fell in the deadly rain. After only three seconds, everything was over. Harry stepped over the bleeding forms of the three aurors, his bloodlust satisfied at the moment and quickly summoned their wands to him. Then he told Ginny to stitch them back together if they were still alive, they did not need any more problems and three dead aurors would certainly cause them.

He started to search the rest of the flat, but did not encounter anyone else. The front door was in shambles, most of the wards guarding the apartment destroyed. At least the silencing charms appeared to be still in place or the flat would be swarming the cops already. Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair and quickly walked over to the bedroom. He summoned a few clothes, shrunk them and placed them in a conjured bag, before scribbling a note to Ron and Hermione and sending it with Hedwig. Then he returned to the library.

"Will they live?" he asked Ginny, who had just finished treating the three aurors, not particularly caring for them, but for himself.

"Yeah, their robes absorbed a lot of the damage" she replied, sounding confused and more than a bit shocked. "Harry what now? Why are we getting attacked from your colleges?"

"I will explain everything as soon as we are save", he returned, placing the bag on the floor and putting the staff back on the shelve. Then he pocketed the money bag and opened the wooden chest, extracting one of the spare wards he had bribed Olivander to craft for him nearly three years ago. The wand maker had not been pleased, but had accepted, after all he had finally been able to leave his hideout after Harry had finished Voldemort. Placing the wooden box in his pocket after shrinking it, he restored the charm hiding the secret weapon chamber. Then he grabbed one of the books and turned it into a portkey, extending it to Ginny as well. She sent him a you-better-have-a-very-good-explanation-for-this look, before touching it as well. A few seconds later, they hit the floor of number twelve, Grimmauld Place.

Once again Harry found himself standing in the entrance hall of the former Order of the Phoenix headquarter. Despite the cleaning he helped to accomplish so many years ago, the house still looked dark and foreboding. The walls, which had sucked up so many dark thoughts and deeds, seemed to radiate coldness and appeared to close him in, rather than protecting him for the danger which lurked outside. Harry shivered. Being here caused so many bad memories to resurface that he nearly turned around and left the mansion for good. However he managed to fight down his panic and firmly told himself that it was only temporary and that it would get better as soon as the others were here as well.

"Well, Harry, you still owe me an explanation", said Ginny quietly, so quietly that Harry wondered if she was affected that badly by the place as well.

"Indeed, I do", he replied and conjured two comfortable armchairs with a flick of his wand. He sat down and motioned her to join him. After she had settled down as well, he started to recount the past week's event in a so calm and composed voice that he sounded as though he was talking about a mildly interesting novel.

"I can't believe this!" shouted Ginny once he was finished, after having grown constantly redder during his tale. "You saved all their bloody asses when you finished off Voldemort and _this_ is how they thank you. If I get my hands on this royal git of a minister, I swear I will…"

But Harry never knew what she was going to do. In this instant the front door of the mansion opened and Ron and Hermione entered.

"Hey mate", said Ron after stepping into the entrance hall. "We came as fast as we could, your message sounded pretty urgent. Is there something we can help you with?"

"Yes there is something indeed", replied Harry, his face grim. "I need your help to reform the Order of the Phoenix tonight; we are going to overthrow the ministry."


	12. Preparation

"What?" asked Ron, confusion evident on his face.  
"I am going to overthrow the ministry and I will need your help." replied Harry very slowly, barely resisting the urge to roll his eyes.  
"Harry, are you feeling well? You are not making any sense." echoed Hermione cautiously, apparently convinced that he had gone round the bend. "Where have you been and what happened to you?"

This time Harry did roll his eyes. Leave it to Hermione to question every bloody thing on earth. However they really did not have any time to spare at the moment. He had to contact all former members of the order before Scrimgeour ordered some of his ex-colleagues to tail his close friends. He was especially concerned about Tonks and Kingsley.  
"I can assure you that I am in perfect health and completely sane, as far as one can actually be." said Harry, locking eyes with his curly haired friend and willing her to understand. "I have a very good reason to plan this putsch and I will share it with you soon enough. However timing is crucial at the moment and I fear that I will be too slow if you won't help me."

He saw Hermione sharing a significant glance with Ginny, before she nodded hesitantly. 

Half an hour later, Harry found himself sitting in the spacious kitchen of Grimmauld Place, feeling strong pangs of nostalgia. Once again it was filled with a large crowd of people debating heatedly with each other, like it had been so many years ago. Most of the old members of the Order had joined their spontaneous meeting. There was Headmistress McGonagall, Remus Lupin, Nyphadora Tonks, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, Bill, Charley, Fred and George Weasley and, of course, Ginny, Hermione, Ron and he himself. Some former members had died during the war, while others remained absent for various reasons. Mundungus Fletcher, for example, was currently sitting in jail for selling various highly restricted potion ingredients. Even though Harry technically was not even a member, he was regarded to be the host and the leader of today's gathering. At the moment he was only waiting for chatter to die down. Most of the attendants had arrived only recently and appeared to be very eager to share some exciting news with others.

After Hermione and Ron had agreed to help, the four of them had spent the next fifteen minutes writing letters and making floocalls. They had stayed very vague in them to prevent any information from leaking out. While it was not very likely that these ways of communication were getting watched, they also did not want to give to many details to the members. When confronted with Harry's plan most would probably pepper them with question or would simply refuse to go along with it. This way it was possible to tell the story behind the plan, before presenting it and without anyone asking too many unpleasant questions.

Harry himself had changed after organizing the meeting, after all he still had been wearing his prison robes! However his new outfit was unusual to say the least and he was still a bit surprised at himself for wearing it. Directly after sending the last owl, he had walked into one of the many bedrooms of the manor and had taken the small wooden chest holding the spare wands with him. Yet it contained one more item. One the first glance it appeared to be a simply small scrap of leather, but one Engorging Charm later it was a full dragon hide armour set. And it was not any ordinary piece of armour. It was the dragon hide Harry had worn during the last fight against Voldemort. This often patched piece of clothing was a symbol of everything he had fought against and he had once made the vow to never wear it again. He did not even know why he had kept it in the first place.

Still something in him had urged him to wear the old armour and he was surprised how good he felt doing it. The leather snuggled tightly against his body, almost fusing with his skin. It felt cool and somehow soothing and he felt a strange calmness taking control of his mind as soon as he had put it on. Suddenly he knew what he had to do to get out of this mess nearly unscathed. Being the nice guy would not do any good today it was the time to be mean and ruthless. Well, at least as mean and ruthless a notorious do-gooder is able to get.

"May I have your attention?" he said, just loud enough to be audible about the noise in the room. Silence fell almost immediately.  
"I have asked you to join me today, because I had a kind of run in with the ministry." he said calmly. "What happened during the past few days changed everything. We are at the threshold of a new area and with an effort you and I may be able to enhance this country. However we may find ourselves committing questionable deeds in the process. Therefore I am asking every one of you to think carefully before joining this operation. You will have an hour to decide after I am finished with explaining. If you don't want to participate, then you will forget that this meeting ever happened and go back home. I can't risk any information leaking out, so I may be forced to oblivate you, if you do not seem to be trustworthy. And trust me I will be able to tell."

The silence in the room was almost absolute; you would have been able to hear a leaf falling to the ground. Everyone's interest was sparked at Harry's introductory words and they were all hanging on his lips. Well, almost everyone. Ginny was looking him straight into the eyes, a worried look on her face. She did not know his plan, but she knew the story behind and her face showed very clearly that she was not going to like his strategy. She had this strange look on her face as she had seen him wearing the armour and Harry strongly suspected that she was trying to psychoanalyze him at the moment. He could only hope that she would support him in this troubled times, he was not able to fight the ministry and his wife at the same time. Well, he was going to find out soon enough.

He started to recite the past week's events, starting directly after he had entombed the leviathans again, carefully watching the listener's faces. Most of there getting darker with every sentence he finished, especially Ron's and Remus', who looked ready to murder the next ministry employee they encountered halfway through the story. Others, for example Hermione and Mrs. Weasley, were thoroughly shocked, while some person's expressions remained completely impassive. Finally after almost fifteen minutes, Harry was finished with his explanation.

"THESE BLOODY WANKERS!" shouted Ron, banging his fist on the table as soon as Harry had stopped. "HOW DARE THEY TO THREATEN MY SISTER AND MY BEST MATE? AFTER ALL HARRY BLOODY SAVED THEM!"  
"Ron, language!" scolded Hermione and Mrs. Weasley at the same time.  
"I agree with Ron." said Remus Lupin, fury only thinly veiled in his voice. "It is outrageous. Considering to put an innocent man into jail just to remain in office. He even threatened to kill Ginny, just because it would come in handy! We have to do something against this madness!"  
"I agree with Mr. Lupin and Mr. Weasley, even though I would not have articulated it in this harsh way." said McGonagall crisply. "However considering our resources and our enemy, our hands are tied. Scrimgeour has nearly limitless resources and he will make sure to let the public know his story. You Harry will be the scapegoat of the public, making it exceedingly difficult to gain any support. I daresay that I consider this quest hopeless and I strongly advise you to leave the country as fast as possible."

"No." replied Harry simply.  
"Potter, be reasonable." snapped his old transfiguration teacher. "Too stay means to get thrown into jail for the rest of your life, do you want this? Take Miss Weasley, sorry, Mrs. Potter, with you and go abroad. You've got enough money too spend the rest of your life away from Britain, even without having to work! You can not overthrow the minsitry, it is impossible!"

"This won't prevent Scrimgeour from sending aurors after me." replied Harry calmly. "I am not going to spend the rest of my life on the run, just because the minister wants to keep his power. The only thing that kept me sane while fighting Voldemort was the promise of a better life after I defeated him. I was victorious and I got my better life and I will be damned if I let anyone take it away for me, after buying it with so many tears and blood! I am not going to condemn my wife to a life of uncertainty on the run through so many countries! I am not going to make her leave her family behind, so that she can stay with me! And I am absolutely not going to give up! I lost this ability years ago during the war and I do not regret it! And if I am going to spend the rest of my life ruining Scrimgeour's days then so be it!"

McGonagall opened her mouth to further argue with her former pupil, but one look into his eyes convinced her not to waste her breath. They were practically aflame and their green glow was shining with determination and defiance. Potter was going to pull this through!  
"What exactly do you have in mind, Harry?" asked Mr. Weasley mildly. "I understand your decision, but I simply can't think of a way to come out of this struggle victorious. Maybe McGonagall is right and it is the best option to leave this country."  
"No, I have made my decision." replied Harry, shaking his head. "This is the only way I will be able to look at myself in the morning without doubling over in self-loathing. I am not going to ruin Ginny's life and every attempt to convince me to give up is a waste of time. And I – we – will win. Because we are going to use a strategy which has been highly successful in the past: we are going guerrilla."

"We are going to do WHAT?" asked Ron, a look of absolute confusion plastered on his face, while most of the Order's members sported similar ones.  
"Honestly Ron, you could really do with some muggle education." said Hermione, rolling her eyes. "Guerrilla is Spanish and means 'little war'. It is a strategy usually employed by small rebel groups, which are striking fast and hard before disappearing again as quickly as possible. They usually strive to demoralise their enemies and are very often successful. It is not the actual damage they inflict, which counts, but the psychological effect. They demonstrate that they are able to hurt their enemies and to get away with it. On a long term base the guerrillas usually win, for example a big muggle war, the Vietnam War, was won this way."

"Well this is a good idea Harry." added Tonks, as soon as Hermione was finished. "Basically this was the Death Eater's strategy and we all know how successful it was. But do you know that we are going to hurt innocent civilians if we are doing this? They are usually the targets of this kind of warfare, because they are so vulnerable."  
"I know Tonks." replied Harry, having thought about this issue for a long time himself. "And that's why we are modifying the strategy. We are going to show the ministry that we are dangerous and that they should start negotiating with us, but we are not going to hurt any civillans in the process."

"Is it me or is this a paradox?" asked Fred – or was it George? – Weasley.  
"It sounds like one, but it isn't. Be patient and I will explain to you what I have in mind, but first I want everyone to leave this room, who does not want to be a part of this resistance group."

No one moved.

"Good, then sit down and listen; this is what we are going to do." 

Half an hour later, Harry had finished filling them in with his battle plans. They had argued a lot about it. Some people thought it impossible to do, others inefficient, some unethical. But in the end they had all agreed to do it. Now they were figuring out each member's role in the reformed order.

"Alright." said Harry, his face glowing with excitement. "So far we agreed on the following. Molly and Arthur will stay put and use their contacts in the ministry to supply us with information. Tonks and Kingsley will do the same and spread false rumours about our plans. Remus and the twins will use their contacts to the more shady spheres to supply us with all kind of restricted items. The headmistress will use some of Dumbledore's old contacts to the Daily Prophet to make sure that every one of our operations will get noticed by the public. Ginny and I will be the only ones staying here at headquarters, because we are outcast and it is of outmost importance that no one notices that the rest of you are part of the Order. Still we will need your help soon enough and I ask every one of you to be available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. We are going to need the extra manpower to brew some of the more complicated potions and especially to execute our operations. To communicate Hermione is going to design some improved versions of the fake galleons the DA used. They will allow members of the order to communicate with each other over any distance and will, of course, show the next date of a meeting. Any further additions?"

"Yes." replied Remus. "We are going to need some powerful allies to be successful and we are going to need access to your vault Harry, the money you brought won't last for a long time, if we are going to buy some restricted goods."  
"I have thought about that, too." echoed Harry, pensively. "I am going to have to talk with my old trainees and tell them to stay out of harm's way. I do not want any of this children getting caught in the crossfire. Hmm… maybe I can talk one of them to donate some hair for a Polyjuice Potion. It would be easy to get into Gringrott's this way and the goblins never share information about their accounts."

"It would be nice to have Wright on our side, too, but I can't take the risk of contacting him. If he loses his position, then we would have made our situation even worse. He is going to be under close surveillance by the ministry, it is pretty well known that we are friends after all. Okay, I am not contacting Wright, but I still have someone to contact…"

"Where are you going Harry?" asked Ginny, as he rose from his chair.  
"I have to finish a chat with a certain assassin." 

_The Falling Noose_ was not an establishment aurors frequently consulted. In fact, no one in his right mind would visit the bar without a very good reason to take the risk. Usually at least one of the bar's patrons died a week, just because there were so many bad guys coped up in a small room at the same time. Normally entering it is a death sentence if you are only distantly connected to any kind of law enforcement. Despite all these facts, Harry was sitting on one of the dusty, ebony tables, wearing a black cloak and feeling remarkably save. As a rogue, there were few sanctuaries as safe as this pub, even though the violent guests prevented most costumers to stay for a long time. He was reading the evening edition of _The Daily Prophet_ and its headline only confirmed his suspicions.

Scrimgeour had not wasted any time. In the title story he told his made up cover story in all its gory details. He had even added Harry's jail break and the serious injury of two aurors, which had resulted of it to the already impressively large list of charges. To make matters even worse, he announced to put a bounty on Harry's head and to hire the best assassins the guild had to offer. Fortunately Harry had anticipated this move and he decided to visit the bar to do some damage control. Having a strange, but pretty good, connection to the most experienced and dangerous assassin around gave him the unique chance of countering this part of the minister's strategy, before it even had the chance of starting properly. If only said shade would finally show up!

He was already waiting for an hour and his hopes that Sandro would visit the pub this evening were getting smaller and smaller. Truth be told he did not even know if the shade had ever visited _The Falling Noose_, but he could not think of another place a thoroughly evil guy like Sandro would go. Nipping at his firewhiskey, Harry was already pondering what his next steps would be if he should not be able to gain the assassin's favour. Maybe the slightly crazy shade would try to earn the fifty thousand galleons himself and would attack him. Harry was fairly confident that he would be able to stand his ground, but being victorious over Sandro would be difficult to say the least. However his musings were rudely interrupted by the sound of a heavy bottle slamming on the table in front of him.

Harry jumped out of his chair and drew his wand in the same instant, only to find himself face to face with the shade assassin, he had wanted to meet all evening.  
"Hi Potter, fancy meeting you here." said Sandro, smiling wolfishly, showing his almost unnaturally bright white teeth in the process. "Are you here to drink a bottle or two with me?"  
"Err, no, I am actually here to discuss business." replied Harry hesitantly.  
"Ah, music to my ears!" cried the assassin so loudly that several patrons glanced at the two men.  
"Stop making such a ruckus!" hissed Harry, wanting to avoid as much attention as possible. "This is serious!"  
"Of course it is or you would not be sitting in this pub waiting for me." replied the shade softly. "Let my take a wild guess: you want me to keep all my fellow assassins of your back."

"Yeah, something like that." echoed Harry, wondering where the catch was.  
"Okay I will do it." said Sandro simply.  
"Without getting anything in return?" asked Harry, bewildered. When had Sandro become a Samaritan?  
"Hey I will a have a lot of fun and I always wanted to test how far my influence in the guild stretched. Also I like to help convicts, it makes me feel like a nice guy you know?"

Wondering if the whole world had gone mad, Harry downed his glass and shook hands with the assassin. 

After having apparated a block away from her parents' home, Sarah Carter started to slowly walk towards the building. She could have apparated directly to the front door, but decided that she would need a bit time alone to think about the day's events, even though it was already nine pm. The last week had been completely insane and today had been the icing on the cake. The _mad_ icing on a very insane cake.

Everything had started last Thursday. In the early morning some very covered operation took place, which backfired horribly. Many top notch aurors lost their lives and even a week later it was not completely sure who had died on the mission. Of course the missing aurors' relatives were going berserk and were putting a lot of pressure on the ministry. To make matters even worse, the ministry itself and Diagon Alley were attacked on the same day by the same creatures the aurors tried to stop in the morning. She and her fellow trainees had not been near any of the attacked places, but she had heard of the immense destruction, which had occurred. Even though a week had already passed details were still very vague and this did nothing to pacify the enraged public. At least the attackers disappeared afterwards and even though no one really knew what happened to them it was a great relief.

While the ministry was getting repaired, the trainees had to work as clerks in the makeshift ministry in Hogsmeade, a very unpleasant job, due to the insane amount of enraged people, who blamed the government for their misfortune. Fortunately it had only taken till Wednesday to restore the ministry to its old glory and every trainee had been looking forward to resume their training. However instead of Harry Potter, Tonks had been teaching them and had been suspiciously tight lipped about the original instructor's whereabouts. And then the bomb exploded today.

It had started as an usual Friday, filled with boring lectures about the theory of being an auror. At lunch, however, the ordinary day became unordinary. Rumours started to spread, claiming that Harry Potter had been responsible for the failure of the auror operating and consequently for the attack on the ministry and Diagon Alley. Also they said that he had been taken into ministry' custody and was going to get charged for high treason, but escaped today. At first she had been convinced that these rumours were simply ridiculous lies, created by a bored mind, but exactly this story had been printed in the evening edition of _The Daily Prophet_, confirmed by no one but the minister of magic himself.

Now, as she was wandering on the empty streets, Sarah could not help thinking about her instructor. She found it hard to belief that he would purposely cause the deaths of thousands of people. The paper claimed that he wanted to finish the three beings, which had executed the attacks, himself to restore his fame and to be once again lavished in the admiration of the wizarding world. However, this did not seem to be part of the Harry Potters' character she knew. In fact her instructor had been very tight lipped about his famous past, a feat very unusual for a person striving for attention. Also he had told them that he had worked hard to keep his career as an auror a secret and this would not make any sense if he actually liked his fame.

Sighing, Sarah pushed this train of thought away. She had no possibility to do change anything of this weird situation. She should worry about her own problems. Just as she reached for her key, to open the front door of her parents' house, a pair of strong arms wrapped around her and before she had the time to react, she felt herself getting side-along apparated away. 

Directly after having apparated with his old student, Harry threw her down to her to the ground, snatched her wand out of her back pocket and put some anti-apparation wards up, before she could react. It would be just his luck, if she ran off before he had any chance to explain! They were standing in the run down living room of an old and unused house, two blocks away, which Harry had explored before starting to wait for Sarah to arrive back home. He did not even know why he had chosen her in the first place. His gut instinct simply had told him that it would be a good idea and over the years he had learned to trust it. At the moment she was getting back at her feet, not as fast as Harry would have liked to. After all she had been in training for almost three months!

"Who…Who are you?" she asked hesitantly, fumbling in the back pocket for her wand. "What do you want from me?"  
"Do not bother looking for your wand, it is quite safe in my pocket. And do not try to apparate away, I have got wards in place." replied Harry, before removing the hood of the black cloak he was wearing over his dragon armour. "Hello Sarah, have you seen today's papers?"  
"Instructor Potter!" she squeaked, a definite look of fear in her eyes. "Ye-Yes, I have seen it, they mentioned you in it."  
"There is no reason to be so nervous." said Harry, in what he hoped was a reassuring and trustworthy tone. "I simply want to tell you my side of the story. There is more to this article than what meets the eye."

And he started explaining everything for the moment where Tonks had yanked him out of bed a week ago. Sarah watched intently and seemed to get more relaxed with every moment which passed. However Harry was not sure if she believed him at all or if she was just acting to save her neck. He could have tried to find out with his Legimency, but she probably would notice it and that would cost him any chance to convince her. After fifteen minutes he was finished.

"Contact me, if you want to join my little rebellion." he said, giving her a silver sickle. "This is a fake coin, rub it three times and say my name and I will contact you as soon as possible. In each case try to stay out of trouble, I do not want any of you kids hurt, just because the minister is being a royal ass. Make sure to tell the others to be careful as well!"

With these words he lifted the wards, dropped her wand to the ground and apparated away, leaving a very confused Sarah Carter behind. 

Two days later:  
Head healer Erik Ford, the current leader of St. Mungo's hospital for magical injuries and maladies, was sitting on his desk in his spacious and tastefully furnished office. He was a tall, black man in his early fifties, with a kind face, long silver hair, which he always wore in a ponytail and watery blue eyes. He had just finished reading the reports of the passed week, like he did every Saturday around five o'clock in the afternoon and was already starting to gather his things to go back home. However his peaceful and quiet afternoon was going to end in the next few seconds.

Suddenly, a grey eagle owl flew through the open window and dropped a letter on his desk, before changing direction gracefully and disappearing in the afternoon sky. Frowning, the head healer picked up the plain, white envelop, with his name on it and broke the seal bearing a golden phoenix. Wondering, who on earth had the need to send him an owl on a Saturday evening, he put on his reading glasses and started to read.

_Dear Mr. Ford,_

Unless you want everyone in your hospital dead, you should strongly consider evacuating it in the next twenty minutes. This is not a joke.

Yours sincerely,

The Order of the Phoenix

Stunned, Ford stared at the letter for at least a minute, before calling his secretary and ordering the evacuation. 

Precisely eighteen minutes later, the whole hospital had been evacuated. Ford was standing roughly thirty feet away from the front door talking to the leader of the aurors, who had arrived three minutes ago. Of course they were much too late to search the building for any possibly dangerous devices and so the only remaining option remaining was too wait for the catastrophe to happen. And of course Ford was not the least bit happy with this situation. Directly after the operation leader had approached him, he had in no uncertain terms portrayed his dissatisfaction with the world in general and the department of magical law enforcement in particular. The fact that his conversational partner had fallen completely silent after ten seconds did nothing to calm the angry black man down.

Suddenly his litany was rudely interrupted by several large explosions on nearly all floors of the hospital. Windows burst and a shower of fireworks erupted from the building, painting the darkening sky in all colours. The witnesses barely had the time to comprehend the situation, when a large golden phoenix appeared in the sky above the hospital.


	13. In The Web of War

Harry was sitting in a comfortable armchair in one of the several libraries of Grimmauld Place in front of a roaring fireplace. His feet were resting on a squashy stool and he was reading a newspaper. Well, it was not any newspaper. It was _The Daily Prophet_ and the issue Harry was reading dealt with the attack on St. Mungo's two days ago. An attack the Order had organized and executed and while Harry personally considered the term "attack" a bit hyperbolic, he was very pleased with the impact it had had on the public.

The ministry had been rather quick to blame the entire event at the Order in general and him in particular, but nevertheless the image of a violent terrorist group the government had been drawing, was rendered ridiculous by the fact that only fireworks of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes had been detonated in the hospital. Instead of antagonizing the public from the Order, the operation and the ministry's inability to prevent it, had piqued the interest of a broad amount of people. Of course many of them were worrying that it was possible to smuggle possibly dangerous items into the biggest hospital of Britain, but the harmless nature of the incident prevented these worries to become too big. However, people were asking for the motivation any group could have to render this deed. Most stuck to the ministry's explanation and considered the Order responsible, even though more exotic theories about the originator of the "St. Mungo's Madness", as the operation was called these days, were blooming everywhere.

All in all it was a promising start and Harry was very sure that the next operation he had planned would cause even more trouble for the ministry. His goal of clearing his name and getting Scrimgeour out of office was coming a lot closer. However he was worried about the next steps the minister might take. He knew that findings had been started to discover the origins of the fireworks and how they had been purchased. This brought Fred and George in a very uncomfortable situation, because they had to explain how an enormous amount of their fireworks had vanished without anyone actually paying for it. Still they were safe, because it was illegal to use any kind of truth serum during an investigation, as long as no one had been killed in the crime. Nevertheless, Harry had a feeling that the minister had a few very unpleasant surprises up his sleeve.

These unpleasant thoughts were wiped away from his mind by the much more pleasant sensation of a pair of soft and warm lips pressing against his neck. Ginny.

"You should not be working at this hour", she said kindly, abandoning his neck and walking around the chair to come face to face with him.

"I know", he replied softly. "But I simply can not stop thinking about this."

"Harry, I need to talk to you", she returned and for a moment he saw a flicker of worry in her eyes, before they changed back to an impassive state. "Don't you think that this is a lot like your seventh year in school?"

"What exactly do you mean?" Harry asked, not quite sure what she meant and not able to grasp her motivation behind bringing up this topic. "It is kind of similar, I feel like I am at war again. You know, spending every waking moment brooding over new plans and strategies and preparing for the final confrontation. Why are you asking?"

This time he definitely saw worry on her face before she regained control of herself. What was she so afraid of? What was she trying to say? Why was she dancing around the subject? It did not make any sense.

"I thought so", she replied, completely failing to sound casual. "Another question: why are you wearing your dragon armour again? I thought you had sworn not to don it again."

"I don't really know what made me do it", he answered truthfully. "It felt like the right thing to do, you know, kind of appropriate to the situation. But why are you asking me all these things? What are you worrying about?"

"Well, I think it was a bit illusory to think that you won't recognize that I am worried", she returned, smiling nervously. "It's just that I have been thinking a lot about your behaviour over the last few days. You appeared to be a bit … enthusiastic."

"Enthusiastic?"

"Yeah", she replied, biting her lip, apparently searching for the right words. "You know, the moment you stormed into our bathroom and told me to pack our things and run, you had this determined glint in your eyes. The same one you always had when talking about fighting Voldemort and when you were just about to go out hunting for a horcrux. You looked as though you were in exactly the kind of situation you were born to be in. And it simply was amazing how quickly you came up with the guerrilla idea. And I could not help wondering if this is what you need."

"I don't think, I understand", said Harry, confused. What on earth was she trying to say?

"Harry do you enjoy being at war?" she asked quickly.

"No!" he answered, much more forceful that he had planned. "I mean I enjoy the adrenaline rush of fighting, when the magic rushes through your veins and your blood is pounding in your skull – oh – that's what you are worrying about! You think that peace is not going to make me happy!"

"Well, yeah", she replied hesitantly. "You should have seen you face when you explained your battle plans. You looked like a natural-born leader! And your outfit did nothing to dispel my worries! I do not want you to become caught up in the conflict like you were in your seventh year! All you did was training and developing plans! Sometimes I had to practically drag you away from your spellbooks to snog! Damn it, Harry, I need to know if I can make you happy or if you need someone to fight!"

Harry remained silent for a moment, stunned by the weight of her words. She had a point, hadn't she? After all he had been unhappy with his uneventful desk job, even though everything else was just fine. Did he need an enemy to be happy? Was this even more important then Ginny? For a moment he was not sure. Then, suddenly he knew the answer. It bloody hell wasn't! Suddenly he remembered all the times he had thought about his peaceful life after his crusade against Voldemort. The countless times he had lain exhausted on the hard floor of the Room of Requirement after a particular exhausting training session and had thought about everything he want to do with Ginny after all of this was over. He thought of all the nights he had spent lying awake in his four-poster, carefully planning his life. And he remembered how bored he had been at the ministry, with so much time to spare and nothing to do with it.

"Ginny", Harry said softly, locking his gaze with her slightly teary eyes. "I am a pretty good leader and I like to fight, but nothing is as important to me as you are. You were the reason why I did not simply give up and handed the world to Voldemort. You were my candle in the darkness of the war. It was the promise of a better life, and life in peace and with you, what kept me going. I have realized today that I need something to occupy me. Something to focus all my energy on. In the past this has been my crusade against Voldemort and my job as an Auror. That was why I was so discontent during my time as a paper-pusher. It was not nearly enough to challenge me! But I would rather be a paper-pusher all my life than having to endure a year without you."

"Oh Harry!" replied Ginny, so softly that he nearly missed it. Her eyes were shining with tears, but she was smiling brightly. Then she captured his lips in a soft, sweet kiss. Time stopped for a moment.

"It's late, let's go to bed", said Harry, huskily after breaking away. "We will need all sleep we are able to get."

Harry slipped into Gringrott's unnoticed, his appearance much too ordinary to attract attention. He was dressed in muggle clothes, wearing tight blue jeans, a white blouse and high heels. He had gathered his long blond hair in a loose ponytail and was wearing little makeup. As he climbed into the chart, which would take him to his vault, he congratulated himself once again for coming up with this plan.

Well, technically he would have to thank Sarah Carter. After all only her readiness to side with him had granted him with the hair he had needed to brew the Polyjuice Potion, he had used to disguise himself. She had contacted him two days after their conversation in the abandoned house and he had met her at a safe location. He had been completely fearless of treason, because the silver sickle, he had given her, was enchanted to report treacherous thoughts directly to him. It was not that he did not trust her; he just did not trust her. That was one of the reasons why he had refused to let her join the Order, but the more prominent one was that he did not want to someone as young as her getting hurt in this mind game between the minister and himself. After a lot of persuasion she had grudgingly agreed and donated some of her hair for the potion.

The Auror guards standing in front of the wizard bank had not recognized him as a soon-to-be Auror colleague, which was fine with him. If no one realized that Sarah walked into the building, no one would ask dangerous questions. In each case, she had a waterproof alibi, attending her uncle's second wedding two hundred miles away. The goblins themselves did not give a damn about who accessed a vault, as long as he or she had the correct key. Nothing could go wrong and with the money from his vault he would be able to finance even a longer struggle between the order and the ministry. Also, he still had his wedding ring in one of his pockets, allowing him to escape with the built-in portkey, should the situation require it. Everything was just fine, but these damned shoes were killing him!

Even though he constantly assured himself that nothing could go wrong, Harry relaxed not until he had filled his enchanted moneybag with as much coins as possible, had left the building and had apparated back to Grimmauld Place.

Blackstone Castle was not a place someone visited if he or she had even the slightest chance to avoid it. The huge castle made of jet-black stones with its abundance of towers was at least thrice as big as Hogwarts and despite its almost ancient age and years of neglect and disuse still better protected than the magical school. It had been used as a sanctuary in countless wars, its secluded location in the northernmost part of Scotland and the incredible amount of wards and protection charms placed around it, rendering it almost unconquerable. However wizarding Britain had become quite peaceful during the nineteenth century and there was no use for the ancient fortress anymore. And like every useless thing, Blackstone had been forgotten.

Nearly two centuries later, it was getting reactivated. After the war a new prison was needed; Azkaban was too unsafe without any dementors to guard it and its status as a symbol of treason against the ministry further discredited the location. So, the search for a new place began and soon someone discovered some ancient documents containing the location of Blackstone and most of the wards and spells protecting it. It took the ministry almost two months to get into the old castle, due to the abundance of still activated magical protecting shrouding it. However, they were rewarded for their patience. In merely a week, they had transfigured a great part of the castle into cells, while restoring a much smaller piece to its old glory to house the future guards. The spells protecting the castle from the dangerous world outside, were now effectively protecting the safe world outside from the danger inside. No one had ever escaped from Blackstone during the five years it had been in use and while a stay was not nearly as unpleasant as in Azkaban, the months in the dark, small cells marked its inhabitants.

The only thing entering the prison from outside were the food deliveries once a month, which were using a special portkey, created by the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement himself, to bypass the shields around Blackstone. They always used a different location to activate it and always found themselves at wandpoint with the guards, who were ready to curse them at the slightest unusualness. Naturally the public considered Blackstone as totally safe and a breakout would greatly shake their belief in the government. And this was where Ronald Weasley came in.

Well, technically this would be the moment where Harry Potter walked in, but that detail was not important at the moment. What was important was the fact that Ron was currently adding one hair of a stunned member of the catering service to his Polyjuice Potion and swallowed the vile liquid. A few moments of agonizing pain later, he was a mirror image of the downed man and transfigured his robes to match. Five other members of the order were accompanying him on this operation. Harry, Remus, Tonks, Fred and George had already transformed and were currently rummaging to find the portkey, which they would use to get to Blackstone. They were all standing on a flat roof in one of Liverpool poorer regions, safely protected from any observer's gazes by a darkness charm. It had been a lot easier than Ron thought to get the information about the portkey's whereabouts, when Harry had explained his plan for the first time he had considered the operation impossible.

His best mate had discovered that the only person except for John Wright knowing where the portkey leading to Blackstone would be located was his deputy. Of course it would not be easy to wheedle this top secret information out of him, but fortune had been on their side. Wright's substitute, James Connor, had a son suffering from a very rare malady, which caused the magic flowing through his veins to damage his body. There was a cure, but it was extremely expensive and Connor's salary did not permit it. Of course Connor was very depressed about this and spent most of his evenings getting drunk in some sleazy bars.

It was in one of them, where Harry confronted him, heavily disguised, of course. He was able to talk Connor into giving him the location in exchange for a big enough amount of money to cure his son. Then he would replace the original memory of the evening with a false one to render Connor immune to any examination under the influence of Veritaserum. If he did not remember the actual truth, he would recount what he thought was the truth. Connor agreed eagerly and Harry replaced the memory. Now Conner was absolutely sure that he witnessed the selling of a huge amount of moonsugar, a potent magical drug, followed the dealer and stole the money from him, before arresting him. Of course this could get him into trouble as well, but these actions were not uncommon in the department and he had a very good chance to get away unscathed. The rest had been easy. They had hid themselves close on the place Connor had told them and had waited for the caterers to arrive. As soon as they appeared, the Order members had attacked them and managed to stun the surprised workers within seconds.

And now they were all dressed up and ready to go.

"Okay team", said Harry, who had adopted the appearance of a middle aged, big, black woman. "As soon as we hit the ground, I will erect a shield and we start firing. Remember that our enemies are very well trained and dangerous. I expect you to fight as well as you can. Mediocre won't be enough here."

The six members looked at each other grimly, before touching the old boot, which would bring them to Blackstone.

"This is really getting out of hand!" thought Ron, as he dodged a sickly green curse, which looked eerily similar to the killing curse and returned fire. They had arrived barely a minute ago and hell had officially broken loose in this short time. Bloody hell, without Harry they would already have been captured! Only his shield had prevented them from getting overwhelmed right at the start. They had appeared in a circle of at least twenty guards in castle's huge inner courtyard and had immediately started to launch all hexes and curses they could think of. Even though they had managed to incapacitate at least five guards in this first volley of spells, the counter strike had been massive.

Harry's hastily created shield sphere, roughly twenty feet in diameter, had flashed angrily as the spells hit it and Ron could have sworn that he saw it flickering for a moment. Then Harry had reinforced it and they were currently using it as a cover, sending carefully aimed hexes at their unprotected foes. However they were rapidly losing ground. Most enemies had summoned tables or barrels to hide behind, while others fought defensively behind their own shield charms, determined to deflect as much damage from their comrades as possible. Harry could not join the fight, he had to keep the shield up, and they could really do with some of his tricks at the moment. Then someone had launched the Avada Kedavra and it had blazed right through the shield. Ron knew that they would have to change their strategy right now or they were as good as dead. Harry seemed to have noticed as well.

"I am going to deactivate the shield!" he shouted. "Try to keep fighting; I will finish this whole thing in a few minutes!"

After giving them barely five seconds to prepare themselves, he lowered the shield and was instantly getting bombarded with spells. The enemy had listened closely and wanted to incapacitate Harry as quickly as possible, cowed by the display of power the plain, black woman was currently giving. Fortunately Harry had anticipated the move.

An instant before the first curse would have hit him; he blinked away, appearing on the other side of the courtyard. The surprised enemy had been quick to spot him again, but once again Harry was able to evade getting hit. His fellow order members used the diversion to down three more guards, reducing their number to twelve. But then the warders started to change their strategy. A small part of them was keeping Harry under fire, while the rest focused their attention on the other fighters. Within a minute the tides turned. Tonks was stunned, Fred was lying on the ground unconscious after having been hit by a Bludgeoning Charm and Remus was bleeding out of several small wounds. He, Ron and George continued fighting stubbornly but it was getting more and more hopeless any second. What was Harry waiting for? Why wasn't he fighting with them? The end of the fight seemed to be so close.

As he was preparing to stun one of the guards firing at Harry, Ron was hit by a Cutting Charm in the right thigh. He fell down to the ground screaming, his wand clattering down on the rough stones. A guard's face appeared over him, slightly blurred through the pain. However, Ron was still able to see the murderous anger in his foe' eyes and knew that this may be his last moment alive. Just as the guard lifted his wand, he was hit by something in the chest and flew at least ten feet before crashing to the ground in a heap of broken bones.

Stunned, Ron took a look around and was astonished to see all other guards lying stunned on the ground. A very relieved looking Harry Potter was standing in the middle of the battlefield and seemed to catching his breath. After a while he walked over to Ron and healed his leg with a flick of his wand.

"Ginny taught me", he answered Ron's unasked question.

"What on earth did you do Harry?" replied the redhead, gesturing weakly at the limp bodies surrounding them.

"Supercharged stunners, aiming at the mental signature of the guards. It takes a while and it is very tiring, but effective nevertheless", answered Harry, looking quite pleased with himself. "Come on, lets stitch the others back together, we have got work to do!"

To say that minister Scrimgeour was in a bad mood would be the understatement of the century. He was totally livid! He was sitting on his desk in his fashionable, spacious office and was currently busy verbally abusing John Wright, who was sitting in a chair in front of him, in the worst way possible. What had happened to enrage the otherwise level minded minister this badly?

Well, everything started with Harry Potter. He and his Order had actually succeeded in gaining control of Blackstone Prison, a deed which almost everyone had considered impossible. To make matters even worse, they did not actually do anything with the prison, but simply left a note stating their goals and that they wish no harm to the public. They did not free any criminal, nor killed any guard! Under normal circumstances the minister should be happy about these facts, but he absolutely wasn't. _The Daily Prophet_ had somehow gotten hold on the letter and had printed it in its evening edition and right now the people were going berserk.

The only thing the Order wanted to achieve was a fair trial for Harry under the influence of Veritaserum or at least that was what they claimed in the letter. These ridiculously modest allowances, combined with the Orders efficient displays of power and their very gentle way of operation, caused most of the population to sympathise with the rogues. They were demanding to give in to the Order, before the situation had any chance to escalate. And this was why Scimgeour was currently busy shouting at Wright, while cursing Harry Potter over and over in his head.

"Are you finished?" said Wright calmly, during a lengthy pause in Scrimgeour's tirade. "Don't waste your breath minister, you know that I didn't give Harry this information and unless you can prove the opposite, I am going back to work. Have a nice day."

"I am going to end this Wright!" shouted the minister, as the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement left the office. "This will be over in two days!"

One day later, at midday, the Order was just about to start a meeting in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place. They were only waiting for Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and for Kingsley Shacklebolt, who were already ten minutes late. Just as Harry was starting to worry abut their absence, Kingsley bolted into the room, looking thoroughly out of breath.

"Kingsley, why on earth are you banging in here?" asked Harry, already bracing himself for bad news.

"Have you read today's papers?" replied Kingsley breathlessly.

"No, something important in them?" returned Harry."

"You could say that", said Kingsley mirthlessly. "They arrested Arthur and Molly for being member of a terrorist group and passing ministry information to it."

Absolute silence filled the room for a few heartbeats. Then Ron jumped from his chair and grabbed his cloak.

"Well?" he asked angrily. "What are you bloody waiting for? We have to get them out of there!"

"Ron" said Hermione softly. "We don't even know where exactly they are being held and we need to have a plan before we can rescue them. We can't simply waltz into the ministry and start to search for them!"

"To hell with a bloody plan!" shouted Ron. "We don't need a plan! We have kicked the ministry's but before and we will again this time! All we have to is to get going!"

Just as Hermione opened her mouth for an angry retort, Harry decided that he had heard enough. They had more important things to do than to argue.

"That's enough, Ron" he said softly, but the thinly veiled power in his voice caused Ron to shut up immediately. "We will need more information before jumping into the action. Tonks will contact Smith, he still owns her a few favours and Remus will tap some more shady sources. As soon as we know where they are held, four of us will create a portkey and get them out. Kingsley and Tonks won't be a part of this operation; I do not want to blow their cover. Ron, Charlie, Bill and me will go. Let's get cracking!"

Barely a minute later, the kitchen was empty.

Harry had known that it was a trap as soon as he heard about the Weasley's arrest. He knew that it was one of Scrimgeour's cheap shots, a spiteful plan with the intention to hurt him and to put him under pressure. Apparently the minister was hoping for him to make a mistake. Well, he would be disappointed! Harry was seeing through the pathetic plan the minister had concocted, the only problem was that where was no way not to fall into the trap. He could not not get the Weasleys out of prison, his consciousness was demanding it, but this may cost him everything. After a lengthy struggle with himself he had decided to go anyway, confident that his abilities would protect him once again. His suspicions were confirmed as Tonks had needed only ten minutes to gather all relevant information. Scrimgeour was such a dilettante at masking his actions! Of course Harry was not sure if the Weasleys where indeed held at the discovered location, but there was no alternative to going there. Half an hour after Tonks had reported the gathered information, he, Ron, Bill and Charley had taken a portkey to the part f the ministry where the Weasleys were supposed to be held, which conveniently was not protected by a Displacement Aura. That was when the disaster started.

Harry had expected a bunch of Aurors, maybe one or two security trolls, but what he had to face was much worse then his darkest expectations. As soon as he and his three allies had hit the ground, they were already under fire. However it weren't the stunners and Bludgeoning Charms the Aurors sent at them, which were dangerous, but two small, fireballs fired at Ron by two harmless looking statues. These missiles blasted right through the redhead's shield and exploded right in front of his torso, knocking him backwards against a wall.

"Ron!" shouted Harry and hastily erected a shield, cursing himself for underestimating his enemy. The two statues were gargoyle traps, ordinary looking stone pillars, displaying the mythical stone creatures. However they were enchanted to attack anyone unauthorized in a certain area. Their fireballs had been modified to pierce most shields and were exceptionally deadly weapons. To make matters even worse, most gargoyle traps were crafted out of highly magic resistant stone, which rendered them almost unable to be destroyed by any magical source. Of course this was also one of the reasons, why they were so rare, it required a lot of power to actually enchant one.

Harry's heart had sunken, as soon as he had spotted the two pillars in the bare stone corridor. He knew that it was nearly impossible to destroy them and he had not the time to try it anyway. At least he could see the Weasley, cuddled together in a cell, the traps, Aurors and some bars separating them from each other. Unfortunately one of these Aurors was waving his wand in a motion Harry recognized as the incantation of a Displacement Aura, which would trap them in here. He had to do something quickly or everything would be lost and Ron needed medical attention as soon as possible. If he was not dead already. Pushing this thought away, Harry did some quick planning. He had about a minute before the aura would be in place. His shield was protecting them at the moment, but it would only be a matter of time before he would be too tired to keep it up. The auros were fighting defensively and the Order members weren't able to incapacitate some of them. Then, finally Harry had a plan.

"Defend yourself!" he shouted before lowering the shield. He shot a quick barrage of spells at the Aurors and the traps and was pleased to see the gargoyle fireballs flying in his direction. He had to keep the traps firing at him to protect the others! Smiling, Harry blinked behind the two traps, barely allowing them to fire again before teleporting into the cell and grabbing both Weasleys. He heard Bill howling in pain, but he could not do anything to help him at the moment.

Instead he blinked back to his original position, blocking a barrage of spells at the same time and summoned all Weasleys and the portkey to him.

"Touch it!" he screamed, before re-erecting a shield, a heartbeat before another wave of spells would have hit them.

Five pairs of hands grabbed the old vase they were using as a portkey, but Ron was unconscious and therefore unable to do so himself. Not hesitating a second, Bill roughly grabbed Ron's hand and forced him to touch it. Harry activated the portkey a second before the aura fell into place.

"I have to end this", where his last thoughts, before the world exploded in a swirl of colours.


	14. Fateful Encounter

**Chapter 14: Fateful Encounters**

The gloomy twilight in the room completely matched Harry's mood. He was sitting in one of Grimmauld Place's many bedrooms, which was bare except for a big bed and the chair Harry was sitting in. A single candle burned on the windowsill of the room's only window, which was shut and so dirty that you could not see through it, creating more darkness than light. Harry's unseeing gaze was fixed on the head of the bed, where a bright red shock of hair was barely visible. He sat there completely unmoving, only his right hand sometimes scratching a few stubbles on his chin.

A sudden creak caused him to jerk out of his silent vigil. He looked over his shoulder and saw Hermione entering the room, wearing a dressing gown and looking as exhausted as he felt.

"You should be sleeping Hermione", he heard himself saying, his gaze resting once again on Ron's blank face. "It was a hard day."

"Same back to you Harry", she replied tiredly, a hint of irritation creeping in her voice. "You should have gone to bed hours ago; after all you have been fighting today. How long have you been sitting here?"

"I dunno, lost count of the time", he answered truthfully. "I came in as Ginny dragged you out to eat something."

"That has been almost three hours ago!" she said, shocked. "What have you been doing all the time?"

"Thinking."

"About what?"

"Life, the universe and everything", he replied tonelessly. "Oh and about the fact that I got my best friend nearly killed because the minister of magic holds a grudge against me. Why are you asking?"

"You are doing it again, are you?" she said after softly a few heartbeats of silence.

"Doing what again Hermione?" he asked, finally standing up from his chair and turning around to meet her. His muscles, stiff from hours of sitting, groaned in protest but he fought down the pain, deep down welcoming it chasing away the numbness, which had taken over his senses directly after he had appeared back in this wretched house. The evening's events had thoroughly shaken him. Even though Ginny had stitched Ron back together, it was evident that he had nearly been killed. To make matters worse all of them could have died if it had taken them one minute more to escape. It had been close, much too close for Harry's taste.

"Beating yourself up inwards for something that's not your fault", she replied in a rush, defiantly meeting his gaze. "You are feeling guilty again like you have been doing so often in your life. You are blaming Ron's injury on yourself, even though you were the one who saved him! Harry, you are not making any sense!"

"If it were not for me and my problems with Scrimgeour, Ron would have never been in this situation", returned Harry angrily. "Without me nothing of this would be happening! I am putting every one of you in danger, like I did when Voldemort was still alive! Ginny was about to get murdered because of me. God damn it Hermione, how can it not be my bloody fault?"

Hermione answer was to slap him as hard as she could into the face. He was too surprised to react and received the full force of the blow. It knocked him slightly backwards, causing him to trip over the chair and falling down to the floor. As he looked up, Hermion's fiery gaze was meeting his.

"Now you listen to me!" she all but snarled, her face twisted with anger, looking eerily similar to an angry Weasley woman, which she was technically. "You are right Harry, Ron would not have been in this situation. He could not have been because he would already be dead! Who would have stopped Voldemort if not you? Who would have entombed the leviathans? Would you have known the right spell if you had ostracized yourself from us? Bloody hell, Harry! You have saved so many lives, you saved Ron, Ginny and me countless times and still you feel responsible for everything bad in the world! Stop it! It makes me sick! If you want to do something then finish thus madness as fast as possible and don't mope around!"

For a moment Harry was too stunned to speak, his mind racing. In his opinion it was not that easy, but maybe his and Hermione's point of view were the two sides of the same thing. Pushing this thought away, he decided to focus on the last part of Hermione's speech: doing something to end this madness. And he just had had an idea to do so.

"You are right Hermione", he replied excitedly, pushing himself up from the ground. "I should be doing something and I think I know just the right thing. Could you wake the other Order members? We will have a meeting in half an hour."

"This was not what I meant" thought a confused Hermione as Harry bolted from the room.

Ten minutes later most of the Order stumbled into the kitchen they had always been using as a make-shift meeting room. Almost all of them had been roughly shaken awake only a few minutes ago and, quite understandably, were in a pretty foul mood. Waking up in the middle of the night because someone wants to speak to you normally had this effect on people. As they entered the kitchen, they found Harry huddled over the kitchen table, looking closely at a ridiculously big magical map in front of him, while scribbling frantically on a piece of parchment.

"Potter!" barked Mad-Eye Moody, still wearing his nightcap and pyjamas. "Why on earth did you wake us up in the middle of the night? We are not even getting attacked!"

"Oh you are here already", replied Harry, looking mildly, but pleasantly surprised. Nothing in his appearance or demeanour indicated that he had taken offence at Moody's words. "I expected you to take a little longer and I am afraid that I will still need a while to get this done."

"Harry would you be so kind and enlighten us on what you are working?" asked Ginny dryly, before Moody, who had swollen dangerously, had any chance to explode. "Getting kicked out of bed in the middle of the night tends to make people short tempered, you know?"

"Yeah, I am aware of that", answered Harry, the corners of his mouth twitching. Leave it to Ginny to bring a bit of humour into any situation. "I am sorry about waking you, but this is highly important. As all of you should know, we were lucky to get away unscathed yesterday. It required too much luck for my taste and nearly got Ron killed. After thinking for a long time last evening I have come to the decision to stop this mind game between the minister and myself as fast as possible."

"You are not going to surrender, are you Harry?" asked Tonks, a mixture of surprise and anger evident on her face. "Everything is working fine; Scrimgeour is under a lot of pressure at the moment! I agree with you that today should never have happened, but we can't simply give up because it's getting dangerous! Every one of us knew that this was going to be risky and still we agreed to help you! Don't even consider to chicken out now!"

"Don't worry Tonks", returned Harry, chuckling. "I am not going to capitulate or to run away, quite the contrary actually."

"What's that supposed to mean? Spit it out Potter!" growled Moody.

"This means that we are going to use the minister's own strategy against him", said Harry, still unaffected by the old Auror's bad mood. "So far we have always been the attackers, never the defenders. Scrimgeour's last move forced us to act accordingly to his plan, because we had to rescue Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. He had caused us to be personally affected by the war. And this is what we are going to do as well. We will bring the war directly to its originator: the minister himself."

"And how exactly do you plan to do this?" asked Moody, his interest piqued.

"That's where this enters the picture", replied Harry, gesturing at the map on the table. "Tonight I remembered overhearing Sirius once during my fifth year that they found a detailed map of the ministry while cleaning the house. A few summoning charms later, I found it and it will provide all the information we are going to need to execute my plan."

"Alright, alright, but what exactly is your plan?" asked the grizzled, old Auror, impatience evident on his scarred face.

"We are going to kidnap the minister of magic", replied Harry grimly.

Stunned silence followed his announcement.

"You can't be serious", blurted Charlie, after having recovered. "This is completely impossible!"

"No, impossible is to survive the explosion of a nuclear bomb right next to you, when your only protection is a big role of packing paper", replied Harry calmly. "The plan I designed can work, if you have got strong enough nerves."

"Okay Harry, lets assume for a moment that this great plan of yours will work", said Ginny. "How exactly will kidnapping Scrimgeour help us? We are still going to get hunted by the whole ministry, probably even more than before."

"That's right, but if the minister of magic is unavailable for whatever reason, all his powers will get transferred to the current head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement", returned Harry smugly. "Conveniently this is John Wright and he will be more than willing to negotiate with us."

"Well that sounds like a plan", said Remus Lupin, smiling. "How are we going to get in there?"

"Actually that's pretty simple", replied Harry. "As you can see on this map the ministry is a lot bigger than most people think. Great parts of it are not in use anymore due to various reasons and naturally this renders them attractive for us. Despite this, I am very sure that the whole ministry is protected by anti-apparation wards and probably by a Displacement Aura as well. Because I rather like my body undivided, I am not going to try to use a portkey. Instead we are going to use the floo network. Tonks will use my Invisibility Cloak during a lunch hour to reactivate an unused fireplace in the abandoned parts and Hermione will create a safe connection. A small group of us will go in, disguised of course and will overwhelm the minister in a quick strike. If everything works, we will be out in twenty minutes."

"How many of us are going to get in?" asked Bill.

"Three of us and that means me and two others, any volunteers?" responded Harry.

"Bill and me will accompany you", said Remus. "Bill is eager to pay the ministry back for the last encounter and I want to have a little chat with the minister about threatening the youngest marauder and his charming wife."

"Thanks Remus, I feel honoured", replied Harry, genuinely touched. "Alright then, let's get cracking!"

"Wait, how are you going to disguise yourself? We don't have any Polyjuice Potion left!" cried Ginny, just as Harry wanted to leave the room.

"We are going to lose our faces", he answered, before crossing the threshold.

Still slightly dizzy from the unpleasant journey, Harry stumbled out of the fireplace into what appeared to have been a small office a long time ago. Now the room was completely bare and coated thickly with dust. It was part of a rather spacious wing of the Department of Mysteries and had not been in use for at least fifty years. The old fireplace flared green again and Remus nearly fell into the room, followed closely by Bill.

"Has everyone got some floopowder?" asked Harry. "We are going to need it, if we want to go back the same way. If we are lucky, we might persuade the minister to lower the Displacement Aura, but I would not count on it. Probably we have to fight our way out, but I doubt that any Auror would risk the death of his boss just to get us caught. And remember we have to appear as though we had every right to be here. Oh, and stay silent all the time, faceless don't talk!"

The three Order members were dressed in long grey robes with hoods, which covered their faces completely, while still allowing them to see thanks to some enchantments. They were disguised at faceless, elite Aurors, who infiltrated criminal organisations and therefore always kept their face hidden and their voice unheard during their visits to the ministry. They enjoyed unquestioned authority and usually were never checked or denied entry. Still it was uncommon to see three of them at the same time and this fact might endanger their disguise. This also was the reason, why Harry had chosen such a small group for this operation, a larger number would have rendered this plan completely impossible to execute.

"Follow me", said Harry, and left the office, followed closely by his two companions. At first they were walked through deserted corridors marked by the years of neglect and disuse they had to endure, but after about five minutes they entered the populated part of the Department of Mysteries. Well, populated was a slightly hyperbolic term in this case, they still only encountered one or two workers at the same time, who quickly averted their eyes as they saw the three approaching. Interfering with faceless work was a serious crime and therefore anyone was trying to have as little contact with them as possible, an effect which was fortified by the very flexible definition of work usually employed in this case. They did not have any trouble until they reached the end of the department, only a few meters away from the lift. Two Aurors, one young, one old, were guarding the exit and the younger one moved to block the doorway, as they approached, while the older man's eyes remained glued on the newspaper he was reading.

"State your final destination and your business", said the young Auror in a rather pompous tone, which reminded Harry strongly of Percy Weasley.

Harry looked him straight into the eye, what guard was not able to see thanks to the robe Harry was wearing, and did not say anything. Instead he tried to stay as still as possible, not showing any nervousness, guilt or even fear for being in this part of the ministry. Still he was worried. If their disguise would be rendered useless at this early stage, capturing the minister would be impossible. They would have to retreat through the floo, possibly losing this way to enter the ministry in the process. Of course, this was better than having to fight your way through a horde of Aurors, but it still would be a bitter pill to swallow.

"I asked you to state your business", the young guard said again, in a much sharper tone. He was reaching for was wand and made a big show of pulling it out of his pocket.

Harry could feel the tension cracking in the room, but he had no other choice but to return the threat. If he uttered a single word, the older Auror would recognize them as impostors immediately. He had to win this battle of wills! Making an effort to move very slowly, Harry's hand reached into his own pocket and grasped his wand, but remained there. The young guard was inhaling sharply at the thinly veiled threat, and for a moment Harry thought that he was going to attack them.

Luck was on their site this day. Just in this moment the older Auror finally looked up from his paper and quickly grasped the scene unfolding in front of him.

"For heaven's sake boy, let them pass", he rumbled, once again looking down on his newspaper. "They are faceless and unless you want to get into really big trouble you should leave them alone. It's the best thing to keep out of their business, you know?"

The young Auror glared at Harry for a few seconds before finally stepping aside and letting them pass. Harry felt Remus and Bill relax behind him and thought it prudent to leave as quickly as possible. Thirty seconds later they were standing in the crowded elevator, getting closer and closer to the minister's office.

It was easy to blend with the crowd in these busy parts of the ministry. As good as no guards were present; apparently Scrimgeour was relying heavily on the ministry's magical protection and considered it unnecessary to employ any more manpower. He was going to regret that soon enough! Their disguise was not tested anymore; all other people gave them a wide berth and did not bother them. They walked up the stair leading to Scimgeour's office without getting halted by anyone and found themselves standing in a long corridor, which ended in a delicate mahogany door, framed by two rather bored looking Aurors.

Harry approached the door slowly, careful not to alert the guards before it already was too late. Then, roughly fifteen feet before reaching the entrance, he whipped out his wand in a lightning fast movement and stunned the two guards, before they had the time to draw their own wands. Then he cast a Disillusionment Charm on them, causing them to blend nicely with the hardwood floor. Removing their hoods, the three Order members stormed into the room at wandpoint and were more than a bit surprised to find themselves face to face with the minister and two other Aurors, who also had their wands drawn.

"I knew, I heard something", growled one of the minister's bodyguards, a huge man with a long black hair and ice-blue eyes. "Who the hell are you?"

"Potter!" interrupted the minister, before anyone else had the chance to say something. "You are even more foolish than I thought! You are never going to escape here, in a few minutes this place will be swarming with Aurors! You will be locked in a cell before this day is over!"

"I highly doubt that anyone is going to come here in the near future", replied Harry calmly, unimpressed by the minister's threats. "And even if they came, I doubt that they would be willing to risk your life, minister, just to capture me. Surrender now or I will blow you away without batting an eye!"

"You wouldn't dare Potter!" hissed Scimgeour, even though his eyes had widened significantly. "My guards would slaughter you and it would not gain you anything!"

"You really believe that two Aurors are going to stop me and my two friends here?" returned Harry, laughing mirthlessly. "Let my refresh your memory: I have defeated Voldemort and am more than able to send all of you to hell within a heartbeat. And if you are no more minister, then Wright would become interim minister. I am sure that he would be more willing to negotiate with the Order than you were. But if you surrender and come with us quietly, you are going to stay alive, what shall it be?"

Just as Scrimgeour opened his mouth to respond, the door behind Harry, Bill and Remus burst open, and a volley of stunners, downed everyone except for Bill, Harry and the minister. More Aurors started to pile into the room and Harry prepared himself for a difficult fight. Just as he wanted to fire a supercharged Starfire Charm into the threshold, Wright appeared in the doorframe and stunned Bill with a lazy flick of his wand, before speaking up.

"Minister Scrimgeour, you are placed under arrest. The charges include, but are not limited to: kidnapping, blackmail and attempted murder. Until you are either cleared or convicted, you will be stripped of all power."

"You can't do this Wright! Who on earth do you think you are?" shouted the minister, red with fury.

"I think I just did", returned Wright calmly and stunned Scrimgeour as well. "Harry, please lower your wand. You are standing alone against twenty Aurors. I know that you would probably win, but let's avoid this pointless bloodshed. I promise you a fair trial under the influence of Veritaserum and your companions clearing of all charges, if you agree to surrender your wand. Trust me; if you are innocent, nothing is going to happen to you."

Harry was at a loss for a few moments, waging an inner war. Should he trust Wright in this situation? Was this one of Scrimgeours tricks? Was it worth to slaughter his way out of here? Finally he decided to listen to his gut instinct.

"Alright", he said, before laying his wand down on the ground.


	15. Epilogue: Back where I belong

Six months later, the garden behind the Burrow:

Ginny Potter deeply inhaled the sweet May air, enjoying the scents of the myriad of flowers growing in the garden and slightly damp grass. She was standing alone next to an old oak, which she and her brothers had climbed countless times, twirling one hand in her fiery locks and watching her brother and his brand-new wife waltzing between the other wedding guests, the characteristic silly smile if newly-weds plastered on their faces. Ron and Hermione had been declared husband and wife barely half an hour ago, in a beautiful ceremony held in this very garden. Her mother had outdone herself with the decorations, even hers and Harry's wedding paled in comparison.

The whole backyard and now completely gnomeless garden of the Burrow had been decorated to serve as a decent place to hold the long overdue wedding of the century, as Harry liked to call it. Mrs. Weasley had enlisted the help of every member of the family to get all the things done she had in mind. So every Weasley except for Ron and the Potters had gone to work. After a long week everything was ready. The rose bushes were perfectly trimmed and were blossoming extraordinary well, the grass had been mowed, the old shed had been painted, the old tables been replaced with new ones, the gnomes removed, the extra tables decorated with beautiful flower decors, etc, etc. Harry even had summoned a cloud of fairies, which were currently fluttering around in the lawn, their colourful wings sparkling in the moonlight.

The wedding itself went smoothly, a very surprising fact considering that both the bride and the groom nearly had nervous breakdowns in the morning. Harry and Ginny, being best mate and bridesmaid, had to talk both of them out of calling the ceremony off in the last moment. After at least thirty minutes of talking, both of them agreed to get through with it, even though they were still scared out of their minds. Now, they looked as happy as you could get and Ginny was very happy that the never ending story of Ron and Hermione had finally come to a happy ending.

She was just about to walk over to the other guests, who were either dancing or eating cake at the large tables set close to the house, as a pair of arms snaked around her waist, a pair of hands suddenly resting on her prominent belly.

"How are my two favourite persons in the world?" asked Harry from behind her, kissing her neck softly.

"If I had know that getting pregnant would cause you to fulfil my ever desire, I would have tried it earlier", replied Ginny teasingly, turning her head and capturing his lips in a searing kiss.

"Well, as an Auror it is my duty to be at the service of five-months-pregnant woman", he said, after breaking away, in a mock serious tone. "I am reciting rule number four hundred fifty-four of the Auror manual."

"Hmm, I always knew that the world would be only half as pleasant without the helpful members of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement", she returned, leaning in to kiss him again. "Maybe I should tell Wright how good you are doing this job i Auror /i Potter."

"I would appreciate it, maybe this would increase my chances of getting a promotion", replied Harry, kissing her again. After he broke away, his eyes suddenly clouded over and a frown appeared on his face.

"It's incredible, isn't it?" he said, pensively.

"Care to evaluate this a bit?" replied Ginny, teasingly.

"I am just thinking about everything that has happened in the last nine months. Suddenly I found myself stuck in the middle of a thousand years old contest, between possibly the three most power beings, which ever walked the earth. I swallowed an exotic and very dangerous potion, which caused me to dive into four thousand years old memories; I did not even know I had! Then I suddenly write down a spell's Arithmancy Code, even though I don't know anything about the subject! I watched Diagon Alley going down in flames, broke into a ministry depot and finally managed to banish the leviathans, nearly dieing in the process, just to get arrested by a crazed minister."

"And that's not all! I am getting freed out of my prison by a completely insane shade assassin, save my charming wife from getting murdered and start a terrorist group to overthrow the ministry. I even confronted the minister in his own office! And every one of these events happened in three months! That's simply crazy!"

"Yeah it surely is a time to remember", replied Ginny, closing her eyes and resting her head on his chest. "But the last nine months weren't completely bad. Everyone came out of it alive and everything worked out in the end. Ron and Hermione are married, I am pregnant and minister Scrimgeour is out of the picture. Nothing left to disturb our happiness. And without this madness, we wouldn't appreciate the peace as much as we do now."

Harry realized that she had a point. Maybe you had to look death into the eye to truly understand how beautiful life is. Still, it had been a bit close for his taste. After he had surrender, Wright had thrown the minister and him into different cells, armed by at least twenty of his men and ordered a hearing by the Wizengamont for the next morning. He had allowed Bill and Remus to go, who nearly had organized a rescue mission to get Harry out, before getting informed of the deal between Wright and him, by a letter Harry had been permitted to send.

Harry had agreed to attend the hearing under the influence of Veritaserum and this had been the key to Scrimgeour's downfall. While the minister had the refused the drink the potion, Harry's testimony had been more than enough to convince the court of the minister's guilt. Scrimgeour had been sentenced to fifteen years in Blackstone for attempted murder, abuse of his power, kidnapping and treason against the ministry itself. But Harry did not come out of this mess completely unscathed. He admitted having broken into the depot and having stolen ministry property, as well as forming a terrorist group and breaking into Blackstone and the ministry. Fortunately, the judges considered the circumstances as extraordinary and therefore did not raise charges against the other Order member's. Harry himself was degraded to Auror status and had to pay a fifty thousand galleon fine. Interim minister Wright won the next election, despite being divorced a multiple of times, mainly because of his good connection to Harry, who was worshipped as a hero once again these days.

Currently Harry was working again as an instructor and planned to never return into active duty. He had enough of fighting and while he still was training every day to stay in form, he hoped that he would never need his skills again. Wright wanted him to be the next head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in a few years, as soon as all the talk about his conviction had died down, but Harry himself was not too eager. He rather liked the quiet job as an instructor and really was not looking forward on once again having to deal with the public. Well, time would tell, right now he had a pregnant wife to look after and newly wed best friends, who probably would not even survive the honeymoon without needing someone to get them to talk to each other again.

"Harry?" asked Ginny and Harry suddenly realized that he had closed his eyes and was leaning against the thick trunk of the oak. "May I ask you a question?"

"You just did", he replied, teasingly.

"Honestly, I am serious", she returned and Harry knew that she was rolling her eyes. Suddenly she turned around and faced him, her beautiful chocolate eyes, locking with his emerald ones. "Harry, this question is important and please answer truthfully. Are you happy?"

Harry looked her straight into the eyes for a long moment. Afterwards his gaze travelled downwards to her belly before returning to her face.

"Yes", he replied truthfully, only know realizing how happy he was. "I never was happier; I am right back where I belong."

**The End**


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